Hünkar Köşkü Müzesi

The Hünkar Köşkü Museum is a two-storey pavilion overlooking the city from the Temenyeri locality on the lower slopes of Uludağ, in the Yıldırım district on the southern edge of Bursa. According to the Bursa Museums Directorate, the pavilion was built as a hunting lodge for Sultan Abdülmecid's visit to Bursa in 1844 by Mehmet Salih Paşa, the governor of Bursa at the time. The same source states that the building was finished in only 19 days, with large numbers of craftsmen employed so that it would be ready for the sultan's arrival. The Culture Portal gives the construction year as 1859; the museum's own page and Wikipedia agree on 1844, so the safest reading is the mid 1840s. The museum page notes that this is the only building in Bursa erected in the Western manner after the Tanzimat reforms under the name Kasr-ı Hümayun, the imperial pavilion. The pavilion hosted three sultans. Sultan Abdülmecid stayed here between 29 June and 2 July 1844, Sultan Abdülaziz on 18 April 1862 and Sultan Mehmed V Reşad on 23 August 1909. The wooded area to the north of the pavilion, where the sultans greeted the people, was known as the temenna, the place of salutation; according to the museum, the present name of the neighbourhood, Temenyeri, derives from it. Over time the building was also called Kasr-ı Hümayun, Kasr-ı Milli, the Republic Pavilion and the Atatürk Pavilion. The pavilion's place in the Republican era is at least as important as its Ottoman past. According to the museum page, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the commanders of the War of Independence stayed here for 12 days in 1922; Wikipedia records that this first visit began on 16 October 1922 and that the delegation to be sent to the Lausanne talks was discussed here. Atatürk also stayed here during his visits to Bursa in 1925, 1931 and 1935, which is why the pavilion is also known as the Atatürk Pavilion. Sabiha Gökçen, a native of Bursa, met Atatürk in the garden of the pavilion during the 1925 visit and became his adopted daughter. According to the Culture Portal, the architecture is in the French Empire style and the interior decoration carries the features of the 19th century. The plastered walls are timber framed and clad with thin laths; the garden has a fountain faced with Kütahya tiles, as well as a caretaker's and information room and a garage. The hand-painted ceiling decoration, the original furnishings of the period and the garden commanding the Bursa plain are the features visitors notice most. The chandeliers are hand-made from coloured glass in the Murano style and in Bohemian crystal, which is why the museum stresses that each one is unique. The exhibition is laid out on two floors, the ground floor and the basement. From the entrance hall a double door leads into the reception hall, the most impressive room of the pavilion with its painted walls and ceiling. A door on the eastern side of the hall opens into the Atatürk Room, where the bed made specially for Atatürk with the letters K&A on its headboard, the towels he used in the pavilion, his coffee cup set and his patent leather slippers are displayed. The study holds his desk and the original velvet-covered day bed. The ground floor also contains the bedroom of Sabiha Gökçen and Ülkü Adatepe, a resting room and the aide-de-camp's room. A staircase with carved wooden banisters leads down to the basement, and a round-arched entrance opens into the Pool Hall. This cool hall, named after the small pool at its centre, was once used in summer; today it is a temporary exhibition space, and one of the first Turkish flags, dated 1925 and bearing the presidential standard in its corner, is displayed here. The dining room to the east of the Pool Hall is the grandest part of the basement; at its centre stands a walnut table with rounded edges and 14 chairs. The lion painted at the centre of the ceiling, thanks to its perspective technique, appears to face the viewer from whichever corner of the room it is seen, and the room is therefore also called the Lion Room. The museum notes that the idea of a separate dining room, which first appeared in Ottoman pavilions and palaces in the 19th century, had one of its earliest examples here. The pavilion was repaired in 1982-1983; in 1995 it was restored jointly by the Department of National Palaces and the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality, and the furnishings were returned to their original state in the workshops of Dolmabahçe Palace. It opened on 29 May 2003 as a museum run by the Metropolitan Municipality; everything on display is the pavilion's own original furniture. According to Wikipedia, silicone figures of the three sultans who used the pavilion and of Atatürk were added in 2015. The old outbuilding in the garden has served as a municipal social facility since 2009, and an open-air exhibition on the pavilions of Bursa can be seen in the garden. The museum is closed on Mondays, on 1 January and on the first day of religious holidays; check the opening hours and admission conditions for the other days at bursamuze.com. Only a limited number of visitors are admitted at a time and groups with reservations have priority, so there may be a short wait on busy days. Photography with cameras, video cameras and mobile phones is not allowed indoors; visitors are asked to stay on the designated carpet and not to touch the objects. The indoor visit takes 15-20 minutes; allow as much again for the garden and the view, and the light over the plain is especially fine close to sunset. The museum has no car park of its own. By public transport, the easiest way is Burulaş bus 37, which leaves Heykel and climbs along Atatürk Caddesi to Hünkar Köşkü. The garden, which in the words of the Culture Portal commands the panorama of Bursa, is worth the climb on its own.