A few days ago, I visited a new attraction in the city. Panorama 1453 Museum presents a unique experience about the Conquest of Istanbul, or in other words, the Fall of Constantinople.
I'm reading from the guide book: There are more than 30 panaromic museums in the world, but this is the only one with a full panorama in vertical, as well, in horizontal order. This means the sky dome is also painted above. The picture is without boundaries.
Located in an area of 3000 sqm, the basic feature of this panaromic picture is its 3D impression. The minimum distance of the watcher is 14 meters. The human eyes start to work as one eye after this distance. So, the painting in the background, along with the replicas of cannons, gun carriages, powder kegs in the foreground, seems like very real.
With the help of the atmospheric sound effects, as well as the tunes of the Ottoman Army Band, you find yourself in the middle of the battle on May 29th, 1453. There are more than 10.000 figures, which were hand-drawn photorealistically and with unbelievable detail. Every section of the panorama tells about a historical dimension of the siege. You feel like you watch a movie, even though the picture is still.
All tourists should rent an electronic audio guide to discover interesting details on the panorama. For instance, because the painting is huge, you don't notice that some of the guards of Sultan Mehmed, who would earn the title "Conqueror" after this siege, hold their weapons in their left hands. When you focus on that part of the panorama, the audio guide explains you that the royal guards on the left side were always lefties to make it easier to defend the Sultan from the attacks on the left flank.
The museum was inaugurated on February and after going there twice, I can say that it's really worth visiting.
Click here to watch the panorama (in low resolution).
Here are some high resolution photos that I took there:
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| Panorama |
