İzmir Atatürk Museum

The house at 248 Birinci Kordon in Alsancak was built as a carpet merchant's residence and later became Atatürk's lodging in İzmir. Each time he came to the city between 1930 and 1934 he stayed here. Today the İzmir Atatürk Museum shows his rooms and the things he used.

History

The carpet merchant Takfor had the house built between 1875 and 1880. When its owner abandoned it on 9 September 1922 it passed to the treasury, and the Turkish army that entered İzmir set up its headquarters inside. During the İzmir Economic Congress on 17 February 1923 Atatürk carried out his own work here. When the congress ended the headquarters moved out, and the treasury leased the house to Naim Bey to run as a hotel. On 13 October 1926 the İzmir municipality bought the building, added some new furnishings and gave it to Atatürk as a gift.

On Atatürk's death on 10 November 1938 the house passed by inheritance to his sister Makbule Baysan. The municipality expropriated it on 25 September 1940 to make a museum, which opened to the public on 11 September 1941. From 5 October 1962 the museum was called the Atatürk Provincial Public Library and İzmir City Atatürk Museum. On 28 December 1972 ownership went to the İzmir Archaeology Museum. After restoration it opened with a ceremony on 29 October 1978 as the Atatürk and Ethnography Museum. When the ethnographic collection moved to the new Ethnography Museum on 13 May 1988, the name became İzmir Atatürk Museum.

Architecture

The building is Neoclassical and blends Ottoman and Levantine architecture; Levantine here refers to the European-descended communities of the eastern Mediterranean ports. It has a basement, a ground floor, a first floor and an attic.

Rooms and visiting

About ten spaces make up the first floor: a meeting room, a study, a bedroom, a guest room, a barber's room, a guard room, a waiting room, a library, a dining room and a bathroom. In the meeting room twelve chairs of the Cosmos brand surround the table in the middle, and ten small mahogany chairs along the walls carry tile plates with scenes from Shakespeare. The bedroom is furnished with a mahogany bed and armchairs in the taste of the day. A French encyclopedia stands in the library, and the study has a desk faced with oak veneer together with the pen set Atatürk used. Bronze statues, vases, oil paintings and carpets from Isparta and Uşak complete the rooms.

The museum is in Alsancak, on the Birinci Kordon stretch of Atatürk Avenue. See the official page for current visiting details.