Beylerbeyi Palace (Beylerbeyi Sarayı) was considered as a summer residence for the Ottoman sultans and a state guesthouse where foreign president or rulers would be hosted and was built upon the request of Sultan Abdülaziz (1861-1876).The first important guest to be hosted in Beylerbeyi Palace is the Empress of France, Eugénie. This trip of the Empress was taking place in Sultan Abdülaziz’s return to France in 1867. Other foreign guests hosted in Beylerbeyi Palace during the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz were Austrian-Hungarian Emperor Joseph (1869), Prince of Prussia Crown Prince Frédéric Guillaume Nicola Charles (1869), Crown Prince of Italy (1869), Persian Shah Nasireddin (18 August 1873). During the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (1876-1909), which lasted for 33 years, Beylerbeyi Palace (Beylerbeyi Sarayı) also served as a museum, especially visited by the foreign state protocol.After 1923, the palace continued receiving heads of states, and in 1936 it was the home of the Balkan Games Festival. The last guest of the Palace, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, spent a night in this building during the Festival.