The Imperial Palaces in Comparative Perspective: Topkapı, Kremlin, and Hofburg

This chapter examines the ideological messages encapsulated in the palaces in the (former) capitals of Istanbul, Moscow, and Vienna and their physical and symbolic transformation during the nineteenth century. Topkapı, Kremlin, and Hofburg palaces formed the physical and political epicenters of the respective imperial capitals and therefore played key roles in processions, accession festivities, and dynastic rituals. Remarkably, the imperial collections housed in palace armories and treasuries were curated to display imperial power, first to aristocratic circles and later to the public. The chapter investigates the museumification of the palaces, a process that started in the Habsburg Empire in the eighteenth century and continued in Russia. Finally, in the second half of the nineteenth century, the Ottomans started displaying their treasury collections, but only to foreign visitors up until 1908. The chapter demonstrates how the three traditional palaces became sites of transition and modernization in a period when the power of all three dynasties was at stake. This process was particularly visible in the shared goal of popularizing the dynasties by opening palaces to visit and repurposing them as museums.