Guide
The museum sits on top of the Sphendone — the curved retaining wall at the southern end of the ancient hippodrome — inside the Sultanahmet complex that Ahmed I had built by the architect Sedefkar Mehmed Ağa. That makes its address one of the densest historical spots in İstanbul.
The building itself is a later addition. Early in the twentieth century a storey was added above the shops on the complex's side facing the Hippodrome, and the result became the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Mines. Later in the century it passed to the İstanbul Academy of Economic and Commercial Sciences, and then became the rectorate of Marmara University.
In 2008 the ground floor of that rectorate was turned into the Republic Museum and Art Gallery. It holds the university's original-print collection, an art gallery used for short exhibitions, and the Ihap Hulusi Gorey gallery.
