The Fountain of Ahmed III stands in the open space between Hagia Sophia and the Imperial Gate of Topkapi Palace. It was built in 1728 and marks a deliberate break with earlier Ottoman taste: wide eaves, painted panels, tulip motifs and rounded forms rather than austere stone.
The style belongs to the Tulip Period, a short stretch of the early eighteenth century when the court looked towards European decoration. Four walls each carry a fountain niche, and the corners hold small kiosks from which sherbet was once distributed free.
Calligraphic verses run around the upper band, including a couplet written by the sultan himself. There is nothing to enter and nothing to pay; it is simply there, on the way to Topkapi.
From Hotel Sultania it is about nine minutes on foot.