Istanbul launches restoration of historic Aşiyan Museum

ISTANBUL

The Istanbul Municipality has launched a restoration project for the historic Aşiyan Museum, the former residence of prominent Turkish poet Tevfik Fikret in the city’s Bebek neighborhood.

The initiative aims to preserve the building’s architecture and Fikret’s intellectual legacy, the municipality’s Deputy Secretary General Mahir Polat said.

“Aşiyan is not just a house. Overwhelmed by the oppressive political climate and despotism of his era, Fikret built this house, which he personally designed, as an escape and a space of liberation,” Polat said in a post on X.

“This unique structure eventually ceased to be just a poet’s sanctuary. It became the home where a generation with ‘free thought and free conscience’ was born, the birthplace of Turkish enlightenment,” he said.

The ongoing work follows the original details to protect this heritage, Polat said.

Meanwhile, Fikret resided in the building, which takes its name from the Persian word for bird’s nest, until his death in 1915. The local administration purchased the property from his wife Nazime in 1940.

The estate opened to the public five years later as the Edebiyat-ı Cedide Museum through the efforts of then-Education Minister Hasan Âli Yücel. The move established the site as the country’s first literature museum.

The museum houses the personal collections of Fikret alongside other major literary figures. Authorities relocated Fikret’s remains to the garden of the property in 1961, officially renaming the site the Aşiyan Museum.