Antalya Oyuncak Müzesi

The Antalya Toy Museum is a municipal museum set up inside an old han building at the marina of Kaleiçi. It was prepared as a project of the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality, with the researcher and writer Sunay Akın, founder of Turkey's first toy museum, as consultant, and it opened on 23 April 2011, the National Sovereignty and Children's Day. The preparatory work had been started in September 2010 by the municipality's Department of Culture and Social Affairs. According to the Turkish Wikipedia article the museum is the third toy museum in Turkey and a member of the Association of Toy and Children's Museums. In 2021 it received an award in the living culture museums category of the Museum Encouragement Competition of the Union of Historical Towns. Choosing Children's Day for the opening was no coincidence; the founding idea of the museum is to preserve the toy as part of a child's cultural heritage. The page of the Antalya Governorship counts the museum, with its collection, design, building and educational work, among the distinguished toy museums of Europe and notes that visitors of every age group enjoy it. The building is one of the old warehouse and han structures on the harbour front; the cases set between stone walls create a quiet interior cut off from the noise of the harbour. According to the inventory of the Metropolitan Municipality the museum covers about 650 square metres and the toys are shown in ten separate sections; Wikipedia speaks of 11 halls and 44 cases. The size of the collection varies between sources: the municipality and Wikipedia speak of about three thousand toys, while the page of the Antalya Governorship mentions about 1500 pieces; the number of pieces on display at any one time is smaller. The date range of the toys is likewise given as somewhere between the 1860s and the 1990s; the core collection consists of pieces made between 1870 and 1980. The cases hold toys from many countries, above all Germany, the United States, Russia, Japan and Turkey. German tin toys, clockwork carousels and trains, Japanese plastic robots and dolls, and examples of Turkey's domestic toy production stand side by side. Figures of cartoon and folk tale heroes, from Nasreddin Hoca and Keloğlan to Popeye and Lucky Luke, form a section of their own. Dolls wearing the traditional costumes of various regions of Anatolia are also displayed. Each case tells of a period and a tradition of manufacture; adults find the toys of their own childhood, and children discover mechanical toys they have never seen. Look closely at the painted wooden carriages of the clockwork carousels and the little figures inside them; the toy craftsmanship of a century ago shows best in such details. The museum is not only a place to look at but a place to make things. It has a separate two storey building for workshops and a theatre seating 500. Children over three can join the workshops individually, with their families or with their classes; wooden toy painting, mask making, origami, jigsaw puzzles, clay figurines, sand painting, drawing and drama sessions are organised. On weekday mornings, when school groups are many, the cases can be crowded; prefer the afternoon for a calm visit. According to the Governorship page the museum is closed on Mondays; check the current information on opening hours, entry conditions and the workshop calendar on the page of the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality. The harbour where the museum stands is the oldest part of Kaleiçi. Close by is the Antalya Marine Biology Museum, where about 500 species of marine life from the seas of Turkey are displayed; the two museums fit comfortably into the same half day. The Forty Steps, descending through the wall on the eastern side of the harbour, are thought to have been built by the Venetians, and this part of the harbour was known in the Ottoman period as the Stepped Quay. The hexagonal İskele Mosque on the shore was built in 1903. Sitting for a while at the harbour and watching the boats and the Kaleiçi houses above the walls is the calmest moment of a day with children. Access is on foot or by public transport; there is no car park inside the harbour. Walking down from Kalekapısı through the streets of Kaleiçi takes fifteen minutes, allowing for the slope. The nostalgic tram line and the buses passing through the city centre stop above the harbour. For those with a pushchair the cobbled streets of Kaleiçi are hard going; the road descending to the harbour is more comfortable. Putting the museum on the same route as Hıdırlık Tower and Karaalioğlu Park lets you see the whole Muratpaşa shore in a single day.