Germiyan Street: Old Kütahya Houses and the Kossuth House

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1. What is Germiyan Street?
2. How do you get to Germiyan Street?
3. When is the best time to visit Germiyan Street?
4. What is the history of Germiyan Street?
5. What is Germiyan Street famous for?
6. What can you see at Germiyan Street?
7. Frequently asked questions about Germiyan Street
8. What do the official records say about Germiyan Street?

What is Germiyan Street?

Germiyan Street (Germiyan Sokak, also called Germiyan Caddesi) is a street in the Pirler quarter of central Kütahya where 18th-century Kütahya houses are preserved as a group. The 2002 provincial inventory calls it the finest example of the historic urban fabric of Kütahya and the core of the city’s settlement.

The houses are two or three storeys high and built of timber. Their upper floors project over the street on wooden brackets, and they have pairs of large double doors and latticed windows: in the words of the inventory, fine examples of timber Anatolian architecture. Their façades were restored under the Architectural Heritage Conservation Project.

The street takes its name from the Germiyanids, the Turkish dynasty that made Kütahya its capital in the 14th century.

How do you get to Germiyan Street?

Germiyan Street is in the centre of Kütahya, within walking distance of the Great Mosque, the Kütahya Tile Museum and the path up to Kütahya Castle. It is best explored on foot as part of a walk through the old town. Kütahya’s bus and train stations are a short taxi ride away.

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When is the best time to visit Germiyan Street?

Any time of year, as it is a city street. Late afternoon light suits the timber façades best. Combine it with the castle at sunset and the Tile Museum in the morning for a full day in the city. Check the Kossuth House’s opening hours before you go.

What is the history of Germiyan Street?

Kütahya’s old houses grew up below the castle around the mosques and madrasas built by the Germiyanids and Ottomans. Most of the houses that survive on Germiyan Street date from the 18th century, when the city was the seat of the Ottoman province of Anatolia.

The Kossuth House, on Macar Sokak (Hungarian Street) in the Börekçiler quarter of the old town, is also an 18th-century Kütahya house: two storeys and seven rooms in a garden, known locally as the Macar Evi (Hungarian House). According to the inventory, the Hungarian national hero Lajos Kossuth (1802–1894) and his family lived here in 1850–1851. Kossuth had sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire after the Hungarian independence movement was suppressed by Austria and Russia, and the Ottoman government held him at Kütahya before he left for the West; a group of 56 refugees stayed with him, and he drafted a constitutional proposal for Hungary in the house. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism restored it and opened it as a museum on 19 September 1982 (Kütahya Culture and Tourism Directorate).

What is Germiyan Street famous for?

• Traditional Kütahya houses with projecting upper floors, double doors and latticed windows.
• The Kossuth House, a museum to the Hungarian leader who lived in exile here.
• The heart of old Kütahya, close to the Great Mosque, the Tile Museum and the castle.

What can you see at Germiyan Street?

The house façades. Look up at the projecting upper storeys resting on wooden brackets, the paired double doors at street level and the latticed windows that gave privacy to the rooms behind them.

The Kossuth House Museum. A short walk away on Macar Sokak, the 18th-century house where Lajos Kossuth and his family lived in 1850–1851, with his personal belongings and the furnishings of a traditional Turkish house.

The wider old town. The Great Mosque, the Vacidiye Madrasa with the Archaeological Museum, the Tile Museum and the climb to the castle are all close by. The Tile Museum shows Kütahya and İznik ceramics in a Germiyanid imaret of 1411–1412. The Old Government House, built between 1908 and 1911, has a tiled masjid and tiled chimneys in the governor’s room.

Frequently asked questions about Germiyan Street

What do the official records say about Germiyan Street?

Germiyan Street, in the Pirler quarter of the centre, where 18th-century Kütahya houses are preserved as a group, is the finest example of the historic urban fabric in Kütahya. The Kütahya houses on Germiyan Street are two- or three-storey timber houses. With their projections supported on brackets, their pairs of great double doors and their latticed windows, they form fine examples of timber Anatolian architecture. The façades of these houses, which are the core of Kütahya’s urban settlement, have been restored within the framework of the Architectural Heritage Conservation Project.

The Kossuth House Museum, on Macar Sokak, is an 18th-century Kütahya house, in which the Hungarian national hero Lajos Kossuth and his family lived in 1850–1851. Kossuth, who lived from 1802 to 1894, took refuge in the Ottoman Empire when the Hungarian independence movement was suppressed by Austria and Russia. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Kütahya Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)