HASAN SÜZER ETHNOGRAPHY MUSEUM
The building which is located at Hanifoğlu Street of Bey ward of Gaziantep was built in the early years of this century. After several changes in ownership, it was purchased by the businessman Hasan Süzen in 1985 in an extremely poor state and was denoted to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism after it was restored on the condition that it would be used as “Hasan Süzen Ethnography Museum”.
The building is composed of three floors above a cellar which is carved into the bedrock, and has three entrances with two of them opening to the main road, and the third having access to a side road. From the ornamented large door on the front façade, one enters the central courtyard called “hayat” while the small door leads to the “selamlık” section (men’s quarter). On the southwest corner of the court, there is a separate two storey building with a sitting room upstairs and hearth and toilet on the ground floor. This section was used by the servants of the household. Court is paved with coloured stones, displaying a fine craftsmanship. Basement floors consist of two interconnected spaces with an approximately 2 metre difference in elevation between the two. The basement which is completely carved into the bedrock and which resembles a cave holds jars for storing olive oil and grape syrup (pekmez), sections for storing food and a well. There is also a big loom in this section.
On the ground floor there is the kitchen which is called the “hearth room”, the bath and the fire places which heat the bath and this section of the house, and stairs which reach the first floor from two sides. The bath has all the typical features of a Turkish bath and is heated with steam coming from the stokehole (Külhan) and passing from the floor level. The room to the right of the entrance is the “tandır room”. Tandır is a sunken stone fire place. A stool is placed over it and a large quilt is layed over the stool creating a local heating system. There is a fountain in the hallway of the first floor which stands out with its stone workmanship and coloured decorations and three separate rooms looking on to the court. One of the rooms is arranged as bride inspection room, the second as a work room where daily life is pursued while the third room is the “selamlık” part where male guests are received.
Two of the rooms on second floor are designed as the harem section reserved for the lady of the house. There is a glassed in room on the third floor which functions as the passageway to the terrace and the “dove house”. This section is a quiet corner where one can rest after the tiring tasks of the day. The different spaces of the building are decorated with local furniture and other items according to their functions regarding the daily life and the exhibition is brought to life with realistic mannequins.
