Çubuk Şehir Müzesi (Bekir Ağalar Konağı)

The Çubuk City Museum occupies the historic Bekir Ağalar Mansion on Atatürk Caddesi, in the Cumhuriyet neighbourhood at the centre of Çubuk, a district in the north-east of Ankara. According to the Culture Portal, the mansion is one of the few historic buildings in the district that have survived, and it belonged to one of the wealthy families of its time. The building was restored and rearranged in 2013 and opened its doors as an exhibition hall in 2015. In 2017 the Ministry of Culture and Tourism registered it with the title of city museum, giving it an official identity. The repair of the mansion was part of an effort to save old houses in the district that were close to collapse. According to speeches made at a joint opening ceremony held at the museum, the municipality expropriated four historic mansions in the district and most of the repair costs were covered with the support of the provincial administration. The Bekir Ağalar Mansion also carries a significance tied to the history of the Republic. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stayed in this mansion during his visit to Çubuk in 1933, and the museum keeps that memory as well. With its white rendered walls and dark wooden window frames, the building is easy to pick out from the street. Above the entrance, a projecting bay, an arched central window and a balcony with a wooden railing at the top give the facade a sense of movement. For photographers, the angle that shows the facade best is the one looking up from directly opposite the bay. The collection was formed in two ways; some objects were purchased and others were gathered through donations. The exhibition includes models that describe everyday life in Çubuk in the 1900s. The most talked-about part of the museum, however, is the panorama that recreates the Battle of Ankara of 1402. According to a 2015 report by Anadolu Agency, the panorama was added to the museum in October of that year and was prepared with the support of Çubuk Municipality. Halil Basri Uluğ, who made the panorama, explains that he researched for a long time, visiting the areas where the battle was fought one by one. According to Uluğ, more than ten thousand pieces were used, and the battle was laid out faithfully on a scaled terrain. The same report notes that schools in the district hold some of their history lessons in front of this panorama. The reason the panorama is here is simple, because the Battle of Ankara was fought precisely on the Çubuk Plain. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the battle between Yıldırım Bayezid and Timur most probably took place on 28 July 1402. The same source writes that Bayezid came by an unexpected route via Kalecik and descended to the village of Melikşah on the Çubuk plain. The entry also relates that Timur's mostly cavalry army included more than thirty elephants and that Bayezid was taken prisoner at the end of the battle. According to the Çubuk article, the names of the villages Kışlacık, Yaylak, Okçular and Yeşilkent, formerly Ahurlar, are explained by the army using these places as headquarters, pasture, archers' position and stables during the battle. After seeing the panorama, reading these village names on the road signs out on the plain makes the geography of the battle tangible. Stone pieces are also displayed in the garden of the mansion; the museum photographs on Wikimedia Commons show these archaeological pieces together with the museum building. The Çubuk area bears traces of civilisations from the Hittites to Byzantium, and remains from the Roman and Byzantine periods are known within the district. The Çubuk Plain and the lands watered by the Çubuk Stream have been farmland where settlement concentrated for centuries. That Evliya Çelebi travelled around the Çubuk Plain for days in the 17th century is also among the records of the district's history. The museum is not a large institution, and the rooms of the mansion can be walked through comfortably in a short visit. Since visiting days and hours may change, check the current information with Çubuk Municipality before you go. Çubuk is about 35 kilometres from the centre of Ankara, and Esenboğa Airport also lies within the district boundaries. The Culture Portal states that the district can be reached by public transport; find out the current lines of buses from Ankara from the operating authority. For those who want to make the museum part of a day trip to the north, Karagöl is a good next stop. According to Wikipedia, Karagöl is a small crater lake set between volcanic domes, about 30 kilometres from Çubuk.