Turkish Chamber

About this place

This collection emerged inside the Saxon electors' armoury as early as fifteen ninety-one, when it was called the Hungarian Chamber; the present name is first recorded in sixteen fourteen. Over centuries it grew out of diplomatic gifts, purchases and spoils from the Ottoman wars until it became one of the oldest and largest holdings of Ottoman art outside Turkey. The centrepiece is an Ottoman tent of seventeen twenty-nine, roughly twenty metres long, eight wide and six high, made of satin, cotton and gilded leather, restored over fourteen years and pitched at full size inside the hall. Around it stand more than six hundred exhibited pieces: eight life-size carved wooden horses in complete harness, composite bows still carrying their original strings from fifteen eighty-six, and sabres, mail, helmets, banners and costume. One piece of context matters for reading the room honestly. The Saxon princes did comparatively little fighting against the Ottomans. Most of what you see was bought, commissioned in Constantinople or received as a gift, and Augustus the Strong staged court festivals with his nobles dressed in Ottoman style. The hall is as much a document of European fascination with the East as it is an Ottoman collection. Entry is on the combined Residenzschloss ticket and it closes on Tuesdays with the rest of the palace.