İznik Müzesi

The İznik Museum is a museum of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism displaying archaeological finds from excavations in and around İznik. Its present building was built by the Ministry between 2020 and 2022 and opened to visitors in January 2023. The museum stands in the Mahmut Çelebi neighbourhood near the Yenişehir Gate, the southern entrance of the walled old town. The museum's former home Museum work in İznik began in 1935 in the Yakup Çelebi Zaviye, and in 1960 the collection moved to the Nilüfer Hatun İmareti near the Lefke Gate. This building, commissioned in 1388 by Murad I in the name of his mother Nilüfer Hatun, is according to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam one of the oldest and most important works of early Ottoman architecture. For many years the imaret housed both archaeological finds and Turkish-Islamic works; it was closed for restoration in 2012 and reopened in 2020. With the archaeological collection moved to the new building, the imaret now serves as a separate museum under the name Nilüfer Hatun İmareti Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum. According to the Ministry's page, examples of İznik tiles and coins are displayed there, with gravestones, well-heads, fountains and inscriptions in the garden. The two museums are easy to visit on the same day. Building and layout The museum, a contemporary building with a white facade and large glass surfaces, has its exhibition halls on the ground floor and its offices and storerooms on the first floor. According to Wikipedia, close to 1,500 objects are on display, dating back as far as around 6500 BC. The exhibition is arranged chronologically and covers a span of about 8,500 years from the Neolithic to the Ottoman period. The objects come from earlier mound excavations and from the ongoing excavations at the İznik tile kilns, the Roman Theatre of İznik, the underwater basilica in the lake and the Hisardere Necropolis. The Ministry's museum page also lists finds from the Ilıpınar mound among the collection. If you follow the halls in order from the entrance, you can trace İznik's story step by step, from its first village settlements to the Ottoman tile workshops. Highlights One highlight is a Roman marble game board for duodecim scripta, a game that, like backgammon, combines luck and strategy. In this game each player has fifteen pieces, and play begins once the pieces have been placed on the board. The reliefs on the faces of the Achilles sarcophagus show scenes from the Trojan War, with Agamemnon, Achilles and his captive Briseis. One side of the same sarcophagus also carries figures representing spring, summer and autumn. The Antigonos sarcophagus from the Hisardere Necropolis is known for the lament that his wife Arete, who commissioned it, had inscribed for him. Part of the shroud, the wooden pillow under the head and part of the wooden bed under the body have survived in this sarcophagus. The find matters because it shows that, in the burial custom of the time, the body was laid not directly on stone but on a wooden bed. The Nike-Eros sarcophagus, dated to the 2nd century AD, is of the Dokimeion type, with the figures of Nike and Eros carved separately. The chest-type sarcophagus of Nigerine and Astyris belonged to a mother and her daughter, and the inscription on its front says that Astyris bought it for her mother and herself. The museum also has a replica of a fresco-decorated tomb chamber dated to the 4th or 5th century AD, found in 1967 at Hespekli within the boundaries of Elbeyli. According to Wikipedia, the original chamber was very well preserved when found, but was later damaged by treasure hunters. According to the Ministry's page, column capitals, sarcophagi, reliefs and inscriptions from the Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods are displayed in the garden. Visiting and getting there The museum is closed on Mondays; check opening hours and admission on the Ministry's official museum website before you go. According to the Kültür Portalı, İznik is reached from the Bursa bus terminal; places in the town centre can be reached on foot from there. The museum lies about half a kilometre south of the Ayasofya. The Roman Theatre is less than half a kilometre north-west of the museum, so the two are easy to see on the same walk. İznik was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2014; the objects in the museum bring together in one place the layered history of the town on which this candidacy rests.