DokumaPark (Antalya Dokuma Fabrikası)

DokumaPark, in the middle of Kepez, is Antalya's largest industrial heritage site. This is the nearly half-million-square-metre grounds of the Antalya Yarn and Cotton Weaving Factory founded in the 1950s, and since 2015 the factory buildings have been turned into museums, libraries and a science centre, and its gardens into a city park. For the people of Antalya it is both a place of memory and one of the most used green spaces in the city. The story of the factory begins with the city's problems of migration and unemployment. The Antalya Cotton Weaving Industry company was founded on 3 April 1955 to process the cotton grown on the Antalya plain locally and to create jobs; its founding board had 700 local entrepreneurs. The foundation stone was laid on 5 January 1956, Sümerbank, Antbirlik and several banks joined the capital, and production started on 1 October 1961. Built with German technology, the plant processed 1,650 tonnes of cotton a year and produced 1,350 tonnes of yarn; the cloth for the uniforms of the Turkish Armed Forces and NATO was woven here. The factory was a neighbourhood in itself: the manager's and staff lodgings, the nursery, infirmary, canteens, sports building, fire station and transformer building still stand today. As tourism grew, the factory was left inside the city, and production was stopped on 13 January 2003. The land was put up for sale under privatisation but no buyer was found; between 2004 and 2006 the shares were transferred to Kepez Municipality. In 2015 a joint commission was set up for the long-abandoned site and the factory was given the name DokumaPark. No tree was felled in the project, and the buildings were restored rather than demolished; the first stage opened on 30 December 2015. The factory complex is registered as an immovable cultural asset by the Regional Conservation Board. Today there is an "island of museums" inside the park. The Anatolian Toy Museum opened in 2017 in the factory's old nursery building; 13,800 toys are displayed in 15 themed rooms, there is a library and a toy workshop downstairs, and century-old olive trees in the garden. The Once Upon a Time Antalya Museum, in the old administrative building, tells the memories of the city and the factory. The Nostalgic Vehicles Museum, in the old warehouse, gathers classic cars, pickups and motorcycles. In the Dokuma Open-Air Museum, 84 models of Anatolia's historic buildings at 1/25 scale spread over ten thousand square metres; these models were moved here in 2016 from the old miniature park in Konyaaltı. The old canteen became the Modern Arts Gallery, and the old transformer building became the Cemil Meriç Library, opened on 19 May 2021. The newest building in the park is the Antalya Science Centre. Set up in the old operations building in cooperation between Kepez Municipality and TÜBİTAK, the centre works on 12,500 square metres with nine exhibition themes and six workshops; schools come by appointment to the robotics and coding, wood design and science workshops. For children there are also the Train Library installed in a 25-metre carriage and the Dr. Burhanettin Onat Children's Library, opened on 23 April 2022 next to the historic steam train and station building. The green side is as rich as the museums. The 23,500-square-metre Botanic Park holds 583 trees of 213 species and more than eight thousand plants; the Japanese garden, bougainvillea garden, tropical plants, medicinal and endemic species and the rock garden are separate sections. The orange grove and the olive grove remain in place, with walking paths, water pools, children's playgrounds and sports fields added between them. The best plan for a visit is museums in the morning and a walk in the park in the afternoon. The Toy Museum gets crowded at weekends; choose a weekday morning for a quiet visit. Entry conditions and opening days of the museums may change, so check the current information on Kepez Municipality's pages. The park is close to the city centre: the Dokuma stop on AntRay's T3 line is next to the park, a few stops on the tram from Müze towards Varsak. The park is on Namık Kemal Boulevard in Fabrikalar neighbourhood. An hour and a half covers two of the museums and the botanic park; half a day covers the whole site.