Bolu Museum

Bolu sits on an old route between Ankara and Istanbul, and human settlement here goes back to the Chalcolithic period, some 5,500 years BC. Phrygians, Lydians, Persians, the kingdom of Bithynia, the Romans and the Ottomans all left traces, and the museum gathers them. It was set up in 1976 to protect the finds of the region and opened to visitors in 1981.

Its archaeology hall shows marble, glass and ceramic works from the Neolithic to the Byzantine period. Roman pieces are the highlight: a statue of Heracles, a female head, a bust of Hermes, a statue of a nymph and a gladiator's tomb stele. A brick tomb with a skeleton and burial gifts is also exhibited. Coins come from Greek cities, the Roman and Byzantine empires and Islamic states such as the Umayyads, the Artuqids, the Seljuks, the Ilkhanids and the Ottomans.

The second section is an ethnography hall on local life. The garden displays sarcophagi, stelae, columns and capitals, friezes and other Roman architectural pieces, Byzantine baptismal vessels and Ottoman inscribed tombstones.