Sivas Atatürk and Congress Museum

This handsome building in Sivas opened in 1892 as a secondary school and later became a provincial high school. In the autumn of 1919 it took on a very different role. From 4 to 11 September the Sivas Congress met here, a gathering called and shaped by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and for 108 days between early September and mid-December the building served as the headquarters of the national resistance.

Today the ground and first floors are arranged as a sequence of themed rooms. Downstairs you follow the armistice and the occupations, the press and communications of the struggle, the journey from Samsun to Sivas, and the resistance societies and congresses. Upstairs you find the congress hall, the room where Mustafa Kemal stayed, portraits of the commanders, and displays on the part played by the people of Sivas and by women.

The collection includes 41 ethnographic items linked to Atatürk and the congress, among them the work desk he used during the sessions. A children's room, a library, a conference hall and a museum shop make it an easy stop for families too.