Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet
A 1918 prison in Istanbul's Old City, a Four Seasons since 1996, reopened in 2022 with sixty-five keys around an enclosed garden courtyard
The Privata Perspective
The building went up as a prison between 1918 and 1919 and became a Four Seasons in January 1996. The date that matters more is 2022, when the hotel reopened after a hotelwide renovation with Goddard Littlefair credited as both architect and interior designer — Ottoman-era bones, and everything laid over them barely worn in.
Sixty-five keys, forty-eight rooms and seventeen suites, wrapped around an enclosed garden courtyard. At that size the category decides the stay. Superior is the entry and there are only eight of them; the twenty-seven Deluxe Rooms carry most of the house; the Marmara Suite, at 135 m², is the largest single key in the hotel.
We book it for clients who want the Old City on foot — Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque are the neighbours — rather than the water. Spring and autumn are the windows. One thing to settle first: there is no pool here, and guests swim at the Bosphorus sister property.
Accommodations
Superior Room
30–35 m² 323–377 sq.ft.
The entry category, and only eight of the sixty-five keys
Deluxe Room
32–40 m² 344–431 sq.ft.
Twenty-seven of them — the category most stays land in
Premier Room
40–57 m² 431–614 sq.ft.
Thirteen keys, and the widest size spread of any room category here
Marmara Suite
135 m² 1,453 sq.ft.
The largest key in the hotel, and there is exactly one of it
Dining
Avlu Restaurant
Contemporary Anatolian
Fifty-seven seats indoors and sixty-eight outside — duck tirit, siron, and katmer with madımak herbs
Lingo Lingo
Fish and modern mezze
A bar, a winter garden and a dining room, with what the operator calls sustainable cocktails
The Rooftop
Cocktails
Seventy outdoor seats, and standing room for another 120
Spa & Wellness
Kurna Spa is a small space built around an authentic hammam, with individual treatment rooms, change facilities, and steam and sauna rooms for mixed and same-sex use. The operator publishes no size. There is no pool here; guests use the indoor and outdoor swimming pool at sister property Four Seasons Hotel Bosphorus.
When to Go
Apr–Jun
Tulip festival, mild weather, long evenings
Sep–Nov
Golden autumn light, fewer crowds at Hagia Sophia
Book With Preferred Access
Experience Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet with Via Privata
Complimentary upgrades, resort credits, early check-in, and dedicated concierge support — available exclusively through our preferred partner programme.
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