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The city center of Eskişehir, known to locals as Çarşı, is mostly centered around the Porsuk River.
Exploring the Eskişehir City Center
The modern city center is just that – a modern city. Around Köprübaşı Street (Köprübaşı Caddesi) and Hamamyolu Street (Hamamyolu Caddesi) is where Greeks and Armenians traditionally lived. The entire area was burned to the ground in 1922 by the Greek army as they retreated during the Turkish War of Independence. Nothing of historical significance remains.
Riverwalk in the Eskişehir City Center
The Porsuk River winds through the city and has pedestrian bridges crossing it every so often. On the banks, there’s a wide riverwalk with trees and benches. There are also several restaurants and shops. It’s even possible to take a boat ride down the river.
Reşadiye Mosque
The largest and most important mosque in Eskişehir is the Reşadiye Mosque (Reşadiye Camii). It sits at a junction of two main arteries in the city and on the tram line. The name refers to an older Ottoman mosque built between 1916 and 1918 by Sultan Mehmed V, but the current structure dates back to 1979. The mosque was designed after the New Mosque in Eminönü, Istanbul.
Parks in the Eskişehir City Center
Hamamyolu Street splits in two and contains Yediler Park (Yediler Parkı) in the center. You can walk through the park south to Alaaddin Park (Alaaddin Parkı), which is a large pleasant green space with flowers and trees.
Alaaddin Mosque
The Alaaddin Mosque (Alaaddin Camii), originally built in 1267 during the reign of Seljuk Sultan Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev III, sits in Alaaddin Park. It was commissioned by Cacaoğlu Nureddin, a follower of Rumi, and is the oldest mosque in Eskişehir. A beautiful marble ablutions fountain (şadırvan) sits opposite the entrance.
The Alaaddin Mosque has lost its original appearance, especially after it was closed it to worship in 1945 and converted to an archaeology museum. It functioned as such until 1966, when the museum moved to the Kurşunlu Complex in Odunpazarı.
The mosque features a rectangular prayer hall with a flat wooden roof. An octagonal dome 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter sits in the middle of the roof. The mosque was under restoration during my first visit to the city in March 2013. It reopened in 2014 and I was finally able to visit on my latest trip in November 2019.
Atatürk Boulevard
Atatürk Boulevard (Atatürk Bulvarı) runs passes the southern end of Alaaddin Park and separates the modern city from Eskişehir’s old town of Odunpazarı.
ETİ Archaeology Museum
Heading west down Atatürk Boulevard leads to the ETİ Archaeology Museum (ETİ Arkeoloji Müzesi). It’s one of the most important museums of its kind in Turkey.
The ETİ Archaeology Museum was officially founded in 1974. The current building, which was financed by local food company ETİ, opened on May 28, 2011. It sits on 1,300 square meters of land and has a usable area of 4,000 square meters. The collection consists of 22,500 pieces spanning from the Neolithic Age to the Ottoman period, of which about 2,000 are on display.
Visiting the ETİ Archaeology Museum
The museum is open daily and admission is 75₺ (as of December 2023). All of the displays are in Turkish and English and it’s very well organized. There’s also a café on the premises. Overall, we spent about an hour browsing through the collection and enjoyed our visit.
Garden
Walking through the garden to the museum entrance, we were able to see several stone items. They include sarcophagi, grave steles, and sculptures.
First Floor
Inside the museum, we started with the first floor exhibition hall. Artifacts are displayed in chronological order along the walls and in glass cases in the center of the hall. There’s also an interactive exhibit in which visitors can explore a virtual tomb.
Artifacts from excavations at several different archaeological sites in the region include coins, jewelry, weapons, glass containers, terra-cotta items, marble statues, architectural items, steles, idols, beads, and metal items.
The items were found at places such as Demircihöyük, Çavlum Necropolis, Dorylaeum, the Phrygian Valley, Alpu Kozakızlar Tumulus, Pessinus, and the Han Underground City.
Represented are the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze, Hittite, Phrygian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman periods.
Ground Floor
On the ground floor, the first exhibition hall displays impressive mosaic floors and statues. They were found at various archaeological sites.
The second exhibition hall includes sarcophagi and grave steles from different periods. Most were from the Hellenistic, Roman, Seljuk, and Ottoman periods. It was nice to see the grave steles were translated into Turkish and English.
