V&A Tells Istanbul’s Story From Byzantium to the Ottomans

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London will open “Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires” on 7 November 2026. The exhibition follows one city through 1,600 years as the capital of both the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. It runs until 9 May 2027 and brings about 200 works together.

Some of the objects will be shown in the United Kingdom for the first time. For readers who love Ottoman history, it offers a rare chance to see the city’s story told as a single, continuous narrative.

What the V&A exhibition covers

The show spans the years 330 CE to 1922. It gathers art, design and architecture that reflect Istanbul’s cultural influence across the Mediterranean world and beyond.

Curators Tim Stanley, the V&A’s Senior Curator, and Bella Radenovic, the Project Curator, have organised the displays around the city’s landmarks. These include the Hippodrome, Hagia Sophia, Topkapı Palace and the Galata Tower. The exhibition also looks at life in the city’s ports and streets through objects and designs.

The V&A says the show is the first in the UK to present the Byzantine and Ottoman periods together. Museums usually divide the two eras at the conquest of 1453. Here, the city itself is the thread that links them.

Ottoman objects and Turkish lenders

Turkish institutions play a large part. Museums and bodies under Türkiye’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Directorate of National Palaces lent works, with the ministry coordinating the loans. Contributors include the Topkapı Palace Museum, the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, the Hagia Sophia Historical Museum, the Istanbul Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, the Turkish Manuscripts Institution and the Istanbul Harbiye Military Museum.

The Sadberk Hanım Museum has lent 19th-century Ottoman women’s clothing and examples of calligraphy. Visitors will see an üçetek, a traditional three-skirted robe, alongside street dress that shows everyday Ottoman fashion.

The Yapı Kredi Collection has lent “Women on an Outing” by Osman Hamdi Bey. The painting shows Ottoman women in front of the courtyard of the Sultanahmet Mosque, better known as the Blue Mosque.

Why the Constantinople to Istanbul show matters to viewers

Many viewers meet Istanbul through television, especially through series about the conquest of Constantinople. A museum exhibition can show the material side of that history: textiles, paintings and architecture. These objects come from the historical record, not from a screenwriter’s storyline, so they are a useful point of comparison with any drama.

The exhibition was organised with Koç Holding, a Turkish conglomerate, and supported by the Huo Family Foundation. Ticketing and visiting details are on the V&A’s website. The museum has also published an exhibition book.

Source: Türkiye Today, Victoria and Albert Museum
Featured image: Arild Vågen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0