The Naval High School was founded in 1773 as the Mektebi Bahriye and moved to Heybeliada in the mid-nineteenth century. After the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923 the school was renamed the Naval War Academy (Deniz Harb Okulu). When the Naval War Academy was moved to Tuzla in 1985 the school on Heybeliada became the Naval High School (Deniz Lisesi). Among the foreign heads of state who were received here were King Paul of Greece (1952), Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia (1954), Shah Riza Pahlavi of Iran (1976), and Prime Minister Zülfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan (1976), all of whom arrived aboard the Savarona, Atatürk’s presidential yacht.
