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The Independence Museum (Kurtuluş Müzesi) in Eskişehir, Turkey, tells the story of the Turkish War of Independence (Kurtuluş Savaşı).
Visiting
The Independence Museum is open daily except Mondays. Admission is 30₺ (as of December 2023). It’s located in a historic mansion in the Odunpazarı district. There’s very little to interest non-Turkish speakers, as most information is in Turkish. We spent about a half hour going through the museum.
Mestanoğlu Halil Mansion
The museum is housed in the Mestanoğlu Halil Mansion (Mestanoğlu Halil Konağı), which is one of the impressive Odunpazarı Homes. It was built in the second half of the 19th century by Mestanoğlu Halil Bey (d. 1880) and was acquired by the city in 2001. The mansion underwent restoration in 2002.
First Floor
Exhibits start on the first floor, where there’s a room dedicated to caricatures depicting important figures in the war. In the next room is a video presentation about the war running on a loop, but it’s all in Turkish.
The main hall on the first floor contains a timeline of newspaper clippings reporting on important events during the war. Again, they’re all in Turkish. There’s also a wall with changing images as well as photos of Turkish war heroes.
The third room on the first floor includes more newspaper reports. The fourth room contains figures of General İsmet İnönü (1884-1973) sitting at a desk while Commander Fahrettin Altay (1880-1974) stands next to him. On the desk is an interactive map outlining the Turkish war strategy.
Ground Floor
Back downstairs, there’s a children’s area as well as a room where visitors can take photos with their choice of background image.
The final room includes an interactive photo archive, where visitors can view photos from the Turkish War of Independence. This room was the most interesting to me because of the beautiful frescoes on the wall.
One fresco depicts a woman in a rowboat, while a smaller one includes a scene from Istanbul with the Maiden’s Tower in the foreground. It’s quite possible the paintings were made in 1919 by a Greek artist from Istanbul named Sotiris.
