About 60 men, women and children stand in front of the wide marble staircase in the art nouveau-styled Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul, admiring the 130-year-old electric elevator as it transports guests up to their rooms. A bellhop asks the group if they're waiting for a tour, and learns that some of the visitors have come all the way from Spain.

"Of course, since the series was released, we've had visitors from across the globe," he said. Many come to witness the magnificent filming location, he added, and delve into its rich history.

The series he's talking about is a Turkish time-travel show named "Midnight at the Pera Palace," inspired by Charles King's book of the same title. It has been available on Netflix since March 2022.

The story begins with a journalist named Esra, who is looking to write an article about the grand hotel that first opened its doors in 1895 and since then welcomed guests like Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock, Greta Garbo and Ernest Hemingway.

The hotel manager Ahmet tells Esra, the story's heroine, a secret: One of the splendid building's old room keys is a time-traveling portal. Esra travels back to the year 1919 and learns about an international conspiracy, in which a British officer plans to assassinate the founder of the Republic of Turkey,

© Deutsche Welle