Atatürk Mansion, Trabzon: The Summer House at Soğuksu

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1. What is Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)?
2. How do you get to Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)?
3. When is the best time to visit Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)?
4. What is the history of Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)?
5. What is Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon) famous for?
6. What can you see at Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)?
7. Common misconceptions about Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)
8. Frequently asked questions about Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)
9. What do the official records say about Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)?

What is Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)?

The Atatürk Mansion (Atatürk Köşkü) is a white, three-storey summer house standing in a small grove of pines at Soğuksu, on the hills above Trabzon. It was built for a wealthy banker in the last years of the Ottoman Empire, later given to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and has been a museum since 1943.

The house is a good example of the European-style mansions that the merchants of Trabzon built around 1900, with stone walls, decorated façades, carved woodwork and a heating system well ahead of its time. Inside, the rooms are furnished as a period home and as a memorial to Atatürk’s stays in the city.

How do you get to Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)?

The mansion is in the Soğuksu district, west of and well above the city centre. The easiest way up is a short taxi ride from Meydan; the road climbs steeply through the suburbs, so walking from the centre is hard work. With a car you can combine it with the Hagia Sophia, which lies below on the coast road.

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When is the best time to visit Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)?

The house is open all year and is a good choice for a wet day in the city. The garden and the pine grove are at their best from late spring to early autumn. National holidays linked to Atatürk, such as 29 October (Republic Day) and 10 November (the anniversary of his death), bring many Turkish visitors, and the house is busiest during religious holidays and summer weekends. Weekday mornings are the quietest time.

What is the history of Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)?

The house was built between 1890 and 1912 by Konstantin Kabayanidis (Kapagiannidis), a banker and merchant from Trabzon’s Greek community, as his summer residence. The Trabzon provincial administration registered the property in 1930, and a council decision of May 1931 assigned it to Atatürk.

Atatürk stayed in the house during his visit to Trabzon on 15–17 September 1924 (the 2002 inventory gives the year as 1934). On his third and last visit, from 10 to 12 June 1937, he spent two nights here. On the night of 11 June he decided to donate his property to the Turkish nation, and he wrote the instructions for this here. The 2002 inventory describes this as writing part of his will in the mansion.

After Atatürk’s death, the inventory notes, Trabzon Municipality decorated the house with furniture of the period he used it and made it into an Atatürk Museum; it opened under the name Atatürk Köşkü in 1943. The metropolitan municipality restored it in 2013–2014. A scientific commission reported in 2021 that much of the furniture had been replaced or added over the years, and in September 2022 the house closed for a full restoration. Furniture was sent to Ankara for repair, and the work revealed carved woodwork hidden under layers of paint. The mansion reopened on 29 October 2023, the 100th anniversary of the Republic.

During the restoration, handwritten notes and figures were found on a table in the living room, one of them referring to Çanakkale (Gallipoli). Historians were asked to assess them; who wrote them, and when, has not been established.

What is Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon) famous for?

• Atatürk’s 1937 decision. It is remembered as the house where Atatürk decided to leave his assets to the nation.
• Belle Époque architecture. It is one of the best-preserved merchants’ villas of late Ottoman Trabzon, with Western, Renaissance-influenced ornament and plasterwork.
• Its setting. The house sits among pines with views down over the city and the sea.

What can you see at Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)?

Ground floor. Living, resting, dining and guest rooms, furnished in the style of the early 20th century.

First floor. The study, bedroom and waiting and meeting rooms used during Atatürk’s stays, with documents and photographs of his visits.

Second floor. Two small rooms under the roof.

The collection. The museum displays around 344 objects from the late 19th and 20th centuries, including furniture, porcelain, carpets and paintings of Atatürk.

The garden. The inventory notes the small pine grove in which the house stands; the paths around it give views over Trabzon.

Common misconceptions about Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)

Is all the furniture original to Atatürk’s stays?

What people often assume: That the rooms look exactly as Atatürk left them in 1937.

What the record says: A scientific commission of academics and professional chambers reported in 2021 that most of the furniture and furnishings were not original: many items had been replaced over the years and some had been added recently. The 2022–2023 restoration repaired the furniture in Ankara (commission report, as published by the DHA news agency in November 2021).

Frequently asked questions about Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)

What do the official records say about Atatürk Mansion (Trabzon)?

The building, which stands in a small pine grove in the Soğuksu district, was built at the beginning of the 20th century. Atatürk was hosted in this mansion during his visits to Trabzon in 1934 and 1937.

After Atatürk’s death, it was decorated by Trabzon Municipality with the furniture used in that period and turned into an Atatürk Museum. Our Great Leader wrote part of his will in this mansion in 1937. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Trabzon Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)