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The Ankara Ethnography Museum (Etnografya Müzesi) is one of the finest museums in the city. It contains a collection of Turkish art from the Seljuk period to the present.
History of the Ankara Ethnography Museum
The Ankara Ethnography Museum is located on what was formerly known as Namazgah Hill, where Friday prayers were performed during the Turkish War of Independence. The building was designed by Turkish architect Arif Hikmet Koyunoğlu (1888-1982) and built between 1925 and 1928.
The building is reached by 28 marble steps flanked by sculptures of lions. It has a rectangular plan and is topped by a single dome. It was originally intended to be an archaeology museum, but the Ethnography Museum opened in its place in 1930.
Visiting the Ankara Ethnography Museum
The Ankara Ethnography Museum is open daily from 9am to 6pm. Admission for foreigners is €4 (as of March 2024). It has an impressive collection, but unfortunately the museum was only partially open when we visited. We didn’t get to see the traditional clothing, household tools, carpet, or metal works collections, and hope to go back on a future trip to Ankara to see what we missed.
Cultural Items
First, in the wing to the right of the entrance is a small room containing a display filled with Turkish coffee cups and a few other items dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries. A larger display on the other side of the room depicts a traditional circumcision scene filled with beautiful wooden furniture, cabinets, carpets, and a few ceramic and glass items.
Ceramics and Glass
To the left of the entrance is a large room dedicated to ceramics and glass. One case displays Seljuk ceramics dating to the 11th through 13th centuries, including small bowls, jugs, figurines, and tiles. 16th century Iznik tiles as well as beautifully decorated Iznik and Kütahya ceramic dishes and vases follow.
Other displays feature porcelain made at Yıldız Palace and ceramic from the Tophane district of Istanbul, and glass made at Beykoz. Glass items include sherbet bowls, rose water sprinklers, and tulip-shaped lamps from the 19th century.
Ceramics and Weapons
The next room includes a 19th century Bohemian nargile and pitcher, Çanakkale ceramics from the late 17th to early 20th centuries, and Ottoman swords and rifles from the 17th to 19th centuries.
A display in the corner exhibits ethnographic items from the personal collection of Turkish educator Besim Atalay (1882-1965) from the 17th to 19th centuries.
Calligraphy
The Ankara Ethnography Museum continues with a calligraphy collection featuring manuscripts, Qurans, Ottoman tughras, and more. There’s also a figure of a calligrapher performing his craft with tools on display.
Woodworks
The final section of the museum was the most impressive for me. The woodworks collection consists of two rooms. In the first room is an incredible 14th century coffin belonging to Ahi Şerafeddin along with the 13th century throne of Seljuk Sultan Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev III.
The second room features the 15th century inner doors to the tomb of Hacı Bayram and the 13th century doors to the Hacı Hasan Mosque, both in Ankara, as well as the 15th century doors to the tomb of Sheikh Şücaeddin in Eskişehir.
Some of the most valuable pieces in the Ethnography Museum are in the woodworks gallery. One is the mihrab of the Taşhur Pasha Mosque in the village of Taşkınpaşa near Ürgüp in Cappadocia. The other is the minbar from the Grand Mosque in Siirt. Both were made in the 12th century.
Atatürk’s Temporary Resting Place
The Ethnography Museum was the temporary resting place of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938), the founder of the Turkish Republic, from 1938 to 1953. Following Atatürk’s death at Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul on November 10, 1938, his body was transferred to Ankara, arriving on November 20. After a state funeral in front of the Second Grand National Assembly of Turkey (now the Republic Museum), it was taken to the Ethnography Museum by a horse-drawn gun carriage.
Atatürk’s mahogany casket was placed inside a marble sarcophagus where it laid for 15 years until his tomb at Anıtkabir was complete. On November 4, 1953, the sarcophagus was opened by Prime Minister Adnan Menderes (1899-1961) and other government officials and the casket was placed on a catafalque. On November 10, the 15th anniversary of Atatürk’s death, the casket was transferred to Anıtkabir.
The spot where Atatürk was laid to rest in the museum is located underneath the dome in the colonnaded inner courtyard. Before Atatürk’s death, a marble pool was there.
Atatürk Statue
The bronze statue of Atatürk in front of the Ethnography Museum was made by Italian sculptor Pietro Canonica (1869-1959) and unveiled on October 29, 1927. It faces west overlooking the city.
Ankara Painting and Sculpture Museum
Finally, the building just next to the Ethnography Museum is the Painting and Sculpture Museum (Resim ve Heykel Müzesi). It’s open daily from 9am to 6pm and admission is €4 (as of March 2024). It was closed for restoration during our visit to Ankara.
The building was also built by Arif Hikmet Koyunoğlu and built between 1927 and 1930 as the Turkish Hearth (Türk Ocağı). The museum opened in 1930 and houses a collection of Turkish art from the 19th century to the present. I’ll update with a separate post after I get the chance to visit.
