Deprem Kültür Müzesi

The Earthquake Culture Museum, officially the Adapazarı Earthquake and Culture Museum, stands on Kavaklar Street in the Cumhuriyet neighbourhood in the centre of Adapazarı. Run by Adapazarı Municipality, the museum was founded to commemorate those who lost their lives in the earthquake of 17 August 1999 and to keep earthquake awareness alive in the community. The tourism brochure of the Metropolitan Municipality notes that the museum was built on the grounds of the former Officers' Club. According to the Culture Portal, the museum has a usable area of about 450 square metres. The reason for the museum lies in the city's recent past. The earthquake that struck at 03.02 local time on the morning of 17 August 1999, measured at magnitude 7.4, affected a wide area of the Marmara Region. According to official reports, 17,480 people lost their lives in total, and 3,891 of these deaths were in Sakarya. Adapazarı had already lived through a severe earthquake in 1967, and the museum tells the story of both. The Culture Portal writes that construction began in 2000 in order to document the periods before and after earthquakes and to keep the reality of earthquakes constantly in view, since the province lies in a first degree earthquake zone. Construction took four years, and the museum opened to visitors in 2004. The building itself is the museum's first exhibit. Its exterior was designed with tilted columns, broken beams and ruined walls that recall buildings collapsed after an earthquake. The thick columns set at an angle to the ground and the concrete canopy that seems to lean to one side give the feeling, as you approach the entrance, of walking into a moment of collapse. The interior, by contrast, was laid out as an art gallery suited to displaying photographs, paintings and documents. Inside, you first meet before and after photographs of the 1967 and 1999 earthquakes. A large share of the photographs on display were taken by photojournalists of the Anadolu Agency during and after the 1999 earthquake. Construction materials that show how the collapsed buildings were built, a seismograph and other technical items related to earthquakes are also part of the exhibition. This section makes you think, through real materials, about why a building stays standing or why it falls. The most talked about part of the museum is the vibrating electronic simulation platform. The platform was designed to recreate the roughly 45 seconds of the earthquake of 17 August 1999. Decide for yourself whether you want to experience the shaking; visitors with young children in particular may prefer to watch the platform from outside first. The museum also has a screening room and exhibition stands. In the memorial section of the museum stand glass crystals inscribed with the names of those who lost their lives in disasters. Walking slowly here, reading the names and keeping your voice low is the simplest way to show respect for the purpose of the place. Being mindful of the people around you before taking photographs is part of the same care. The museum is not only a place of remembrance but also a place of learning. Awareness programmes are run here in cooperation with the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority and the provincial and district directorates of national education. Visitors learn about preparing before an earthquake, behaving correctly during one and the process that follows. According to news reports, the museum has welcomed more than one million visitors since it opened and is visited by an average of 3,500 people a month. The Metropolitan Municipality brochure states that admission is free and that the museum can be visited every weekday. Days and hours may change, so check the current information with Adapazarı Municipality before you go. Since the museum is in the city centre, it can be reached by city public transport or on foot from the centre. Sakarya Museum is a few hundred metres away; visiting both museums in the same half day is a good way to understand both the distant past and the recent history of the city together.