The Istanbul Water Museum, where thousands of objects from Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman-era taps to 700-year-old healing bowls are displayed, sheds light on the 2,000-year civilizational journey of water.
Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, Istanbul Water Museum Founding President Ercan Topçu said he comes from a family that has been manufacturing plumbing fixtures for 45 years.
“Our family has a factory that has been producing plumbing fixtures for 45 years. Some objects have been preserved in our family for four or five generations. By combining this culture of preservation with our profession, we began collecting water-related objects. We have been collecting items for 30 years,” he said.
Topçu noted that the thematic museum’s collection includes many elements related to water in daily life, adding that alongside water vessels, fountains and sebils extending from cleanliness and bath culture to drinking water, healing and beliefs, the collection also features paintings, engravings, postcards and ephemera.
Explaining how the idea for the museum emerged, Topçu said, “I graduated from medical school in Bursa in 1989 and had acquired some bath items during those years. For example, there are small taps and Ottoman-era Süleymaniye-style taps. Since our family already had a culture of preservation, we have always been closely engaged with such objects. We started collecting water-related items. Twenty years ago, we obtained the ‘Certificate of Movable Cultural and Natural Property Subject to Registration’ from the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum. We wanted to institutionalize it under our company’s name so that we could carry it into the future. During this period, more than 3,000 objects were collected. There are not only Ottoman-era items here, but also objects from the early Republican period, the Ottoman era, the Byzantine, Seljuk and Late Roman periods, allowing visitors to see nearly 2,000 years of the human journey with water.”
Topçu said they have opened seven exhibitions so far and that the collection was officially registered as a museum in 2021.
“Finally, we opened the Istanbul Water Museum. As it coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, no official opening ceremony was held. Nevertheless, we receive many visitors from Türkiye and abroad, and admission is free. We are currently located in the İkitelli Organized Industrial Zone in Başakşehir,” he said.
Topçu stated that they aim to move the museum to Sultanahmet as a tourist destination to reach wider audiences.
He said the museum houses over 3,000 objects as well as more than 2,000 documents, postcards, engravings and other archival materials, noting that the collection includes a 700-year-old healing bowl considered a masterpiece.
“Today, you can see examples of these in the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum. On the other hand, we also have certain water vessels that are on the verge of disappearing and that we no longer use or have forgotten. As the Istanbul Water Museum, one of our goals is to introduce these vessels,” he said.
Topçu added that objects such as ewers, basins, pitchers and ladles associated with water are also exhibited at the museum.
“In Anatolia, over a period of 5,000 to 10,000 years, the same types of water-related objects were produced. Influenced only by the artistic styles and religious lives of their times, these objects continued in similar forms. We can see these examples at the museum,” he said.
Emphasizing that they aim to raise awareness about water culture through the museum, Topçu said “A fountain or a sebil does not exist in any other culture. It exists only in Turkish-Islamic culture. In neighborhoods and on streets, you build an architectural structure called a sebilhane as a charitable foundation. You distribute water to people purely for the sake of God as an ongoing charity. You appoint attendants without charging money.”
Topçu added that one of the museum’s goals is to raise awareness about water conservation.
“We have only recently begun to realize the value of water. We have two very important principles inherited from the Ottoman era. Our ancestors said, ‘You shall never waste water.’ The second is that you shall not withhold water from those who ask for it. In other words, we must use water sparingly,” he said.
Museum awaits visitors
The Istanbul Water Museum collection, which showcases the significance of water in human life, ranging from daily routines to worship, reminds visitors of how water, a symbol of cleanliness, purification and abundance, once shaped life in every corner of Anatolia through objects that are now on the verge of being forgotten.
In addition to metal, ceramic, glass, wooden, textile, leather and terracotta works from the Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, Ottoman and early Republican periods, the collection includes photographs, postcards, engravings, paintings, imperial decrees, documents and manuscripts that narrate the water civilization.
