KOCAELI PROVINCIAL DIRECTORATE OF CULTURE AND TOURISM

Konya - Atatürk Museum

The historical two-storey building is located at Atatürk Avenue. It was constructed in 1912 of hewn and unhewn stone and bricks. It was registered in the name of the Treasury in 1923 and was used as the Governor’s office, after Atatürk’s arrival to Konya it was assigned to him. On 1927, the house was purchased from the Treasury by the Konya municipality and for the expression of the gratitude by Konya people to him, it was registered in the name of Atatürk. On the deed it was entered, “The gift of the Konya people to the President Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha”. On 1940, the house was purchased by the Konya Private Administration with a symbolic price and re-changed and used as the Governor's Office until 1963.

 On 1963 the building was turned over to the Ministry of Education and it was repaired. After one year, on 17 December 1964, it was opened to visitors as “Atatürk’s House - Culture Museum”. The Atatürk Museum, on the 100th anniversary of Atatürk's birth (1981), as per the request of the Province Celebration Committee it was restored by the General Directorate of the Antiquities and the Museums of Ministry of Culture and Tourism. After it was reorganized for exhibition, the house was opened to visitors on 17th April 1982. During its rearrangement it was kept in mind that the structure was built as a house. Therefore no changes were made on the architecture of the building. In the museum it was tried to explain and describe, by documents and photographs, the place of Konya and the people of Konya during the Independence War. In the large rooms of both floors wholeness was tried to achieve with panels and glass showcases. With documents and photographs, Atatürk’s pre-republic visits to Konya described in the ground floor. Documents showing Atatürk’s arrivals to Konya, the visits he made within the city, and his daily notes taken in this house; photographs and newspaper clippings are in exhibit in the panels. Some of his wearing apparel and various articles that he used in this house are exhibited in the glass showcases.