Alaeddin Yavaşca Museum House

Prof. Dr. Alaeddin Yavaşca, a giant of Turkish music, was born in Kilis on 1 March 1926 and died in Istanbul on 23 December 2021. He composed more than 600 works, trained many musicians, became a State Artist in 1991 and received the Presidential Grand Award for Culture and Arts in 2008.

The house where he was born and raised was registered as cultural property in 2003 and allocated to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2016. According to its inscription, the Yavaşca family home was built in 1910-11. Alaeddin's father, Hacı Cemil Yavaşca, had the floor tiles brought from Italy and carved the sundial in the courtyard and the window and cupboard decoration himself. The two-storey house of about 300 square metres has wooden ceilings, Italian marble floors and walls of Kilis's off-white cut stone. Eight rooms open onto an inner courtyard with a well and an ornamental pool. It also has an under-floor-heated bath and a vaulted cellar for winter food.

The house was opened as a museum on 1 March 2022, the composer's birthday. In the basement, a display and short video introduce old Kilis houses and the city; the ground floor is devoted to the composer's life and work.