The museum is at Çaykara Avenue, Çaykara Street. It was constructed as a mansion by a rich man from Erzurum at the end of the 19th century. The building, which had been used as the German Consulate for a short period of nine months in the years 1915-1916, was given as residence to Erzurum Governor Office on March 12th 1918, following the salvation of Erzurum. The Governor Mahir Akkaya lived there until July 3rd 1919 and the mansion was emptied when he left Erzurum.
The mansion gained a historical importance when Atatürk came to Erzurum following his visit to Samsun on July 9th 1919 and lived in the mansion with Hüseyin Rauf Bey and his friends for 52 days until August 29th 1919. When Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha left Erzurum, the house began to be used as the governor’s mansion again.
After the announcement of the Republic, the golden key made by a jeweller from Erzurum upon the order of the Mayor Nazif Bey and the title deed of the house were presented to Mustafa Kemal Pasha during his visit to Erzurum on September 13th 1924.
The mansion given to the residence of Erzurum army corps commanders between 1930 and 1934 was inherited by Mrs. Makbule Boysan, Atatürk’s sister, upon the death of Atatürk and was transferred to Child Protection Institution on 12.10.1944, after her death upon her will in accordance with the information obtained from the title deed records. The building, which had been used by this institution until 1980, was transferred to the Ministry of Culture by the Ministry of Health on 8.5.1984.
The building consisting of the basement, ground floor and a roof floor was repaired and opened to the public as the Atatürk Museum on 3.10.1984.
Basement
After the stone-arched, double-winged entrance, the goods, documents and photographs belonging to Kazım Karabekir and Kazım Yurdalan are exhibited on the right side and one can reach the room with the clothes, guns, photographs and documents belonging to Raif Dinç, a member of Erzurum Müdafai Hukuki Milliye Association and Erzurum Congress, through the door. Across this room, there is a room where the printing machine used for printing of the unforgettable newspaper Albayrak of the National Struggle Period, the Turkish Newspaper Envari Şarkiye issued in Anatolia and Erzurum Congress notifications is exhibited.
1st floor
On the first floor, a big photograph taken during Atatürk’s second visit to Erzurum, armchairs and coffee tables belonging to those years are placed at the landing of the stairs. After the landing, there is an entrance from which a passage leads to the hall that contains the photographs and biographies of Erzurum Congress members, to the reception room and the bedroom.
July 23rd Congress Hall
It is in the Congress Avenue, to which the Hall has given its name. It was constructed towards the end of the XIXth century. July 23rd Congress Hall (Atatürk Construction Professional High School) building is used as fine arts high school.
July 23rd Erzurum Congress was held in a hall on the first floor of this building that served as the High School at that period. All wooden parts of the building got burnt during the fire in 1925. The building, which had been repaired after the fire, was opened to service as Construction Art School. A hall on the second floor of the building and two rooms opening to the hall were arranged as the Congress Museum. While Erzurum Congress was held under the chairmanship of Atatürk, the bases of the Republic were formed in this building and the road going to the Turkish Great National Assembly was launched with this congress. Therefore, this building has a very important place in our Republic history.
In this hall, which has the status of the special museum under Ministry of Education, photographs, biographies of congress members, desks belonging to that period and similar congress documents are being exhibited.
The building is U-shaped and consists of a basement and two floors. Since the main entrance of the building is taken as a basis, there is symmetry both in the plan and in the front. There are two more entrances except the main entrance. The representative hall of Erzurum Congress is located on the first floor just across the stairs. Atatürk’s sculpture, sitting groups in the form of four rows and a map on the wall showing the delegates in accordance with the cities can be seen on entering the hall. There are small rooms on both sides of the hall which are furnished with the furniture belonging to that period.
