Osman Hamdi Bey Museum

In the village of Eskihisar in Gebze, Kocaeli, a wooded slope drops towards the pier and the Sea of Marmara. Here the painter Osman Hamdi Bey (1842–1910), the first Turkish museologist, built himself a two-storey house in 1884 to his own plans, together with a painting studio, a boathouse and outbuildings. For 26 years he spent his summers here and painted some of his best-known canvases.

The property has seen a lot of history. It served as a headquarters during the First World War. İsmet İnönü stayed for a few days on his way to the War of Independence and returned to visit in 1933. The wooden upper floor of the studio burned in 1945; the grove and buildings were listed in 1966, and after repair the complex opened as the Osman Hamdi Bey Museum in 1987.

One detail is easy to miss: the flowers painted on the wooden door leaves of the ground floor were done by Osman Hamdi himself and are considered worth as much as his pictures. The pavilion, studio, boathouse and outbuildings were allocated to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2021, and the plan is to reopen them after restoration and a new display are complete, so a visit depends on that work.