As a part of culture-led regeneration policies, the museum concept has expanded from the boundaries of an individual building to the city and has become an important component of urban regeneration. As a result of this expansion, referred to as musealisation, certain aspects of urban areas are deliberately accentuated, protected and presented, whereas the other aspects other qualities are neglected. Therefore, musealisation generally results with the presentation of the historic city as a staged artefact directed towards tourists. Today, almost every aspect of culture both tangible and intangible are presented in museums, most of the derelict historic buildings are converted into museums, and historic urban areas are transformed into museum areas or open-air museums. In the context of Turkey, the Sultanahmet district has been the major witness of planning and conservation activities triggering musealisation, starting with the re-opening of Hagia Irene as the public display of the Ottoman Empire in 1846. Within this framework, the article discusses how museum concept expanded from the boundaries of the building and spread over the Sultanahmet District, and how the past was reconceptualised and recreated in the district’s form through musealisation with changing ideologies and cultural policies.