The V&A celebrates 1,600 years of Istanbul's past.

A major exhibition at the V&A takes visitors into the past of one of the world's great cities, once called Constantinople and now Istanbul. It explores 1,600 years of the city as imperial and religious capital of two successive empires, the Byzantine and the Ottoman, spanning AD 330 to 1922. Organised by the V&A, it is the first exhibition in the UK to tell this story in full, bringing together rarely seen works from its collection plus national and international loans. Expect fine silks and textiles, ceramic tiles, mosaics, tableware, precious metalwork, jewellery, sculpture, manuscripts and paintings, alongside landmarks like the Hagia Sophia and Topkapı Palace.