:: Ataturk Museum at Thessaloniki

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, was born in a house on Apostolou Pavlou St. in 1881. In 1935, Thessaloniki City Council gave it to the Turkish state, which decided to convert it into a museum dedicated to Kemal Atatürk.

The building, which dates to before 1870, has three floors and a courtyard. It was repaired in 1981 and repainted its original pink. Most of the furniture is authentic. Any missing items were replaced with furniture from Kemal’s mausoleum and from Top Kapi in Istanbul. There are photographs on all the walls of Kemal at various periods of his life.

There are four rooms on the ground floor, none of them of much interest to visitors. On the 1st floor is the reception room, with European sofas, a large console table, and a chased brazier; a large sitting-room, with low banquettes around the walls; Kemal’s mother’s room, with a bed, a banquette, and a trunk; and the kitchen, equipped with contemporary cooking utensils.

The most impressive room on the 2nd floor is the one in which Kemal was born, a large room with a banquette, his desk, and a large brazier. It faces another room, in which some of Kemal’s personal effects from Ankara are displayed. These include formal dress, smoking requisites, cutlery, cups, and other items. All the documents relating to Kemal’s schooldays have been hung on the walls. A pomegranate tree planted by Kemal’s father still grows in the courtyard.