Söğüt Ertuğrul Gazi Museum

Söğüt is a modest town, but it is where the story of the Ottoman state begins, and its museum reflects that setting. The collection started in 1973 as a set of ethnographic pieces gathered from villages around Söğüt, Bilecik and Eskişehir. It was first kept in the store of the Eskişehir Archaeological Museum, then brought to Söğüt, where the museum opened in 1981 in a building opposite the Ertuğrul Gazi Tomb. It moved to its present building in 2001.

That building is a three-storey historic structure with fine woodwork, and it has served several public purposes over the years. The exhibition on the top floor shows how people lived in Söğüt and the wider Bilecik region: clothing, woven goods such as carpets, rugs and saddles, weapons, weighing instruments and a range of everyday objects.

It is not a large museum, but it puts faces and hands to a period that is usually told through battles and dynasties. Pair it with the tomb and the other sites of the town for a fuller picture.