Historic Buildings
Discover Bornova's past through its architectural heritage spanning from mansions to public buildings, mosques and churches.
Established within a massive 520 m2 nomadic tent structure at the Sabuncubeli locality below Karacam Village, the center exhibits thousands of objects related to Yoruk Turkmen culture. Operating under the Izmir Yoruk Turkmen Federation, the center is open for free visits every day of the week.
Located on Fevzi Cakmak Avenue, the Ege University Ethnography Museum houses a rich collection of Anatolian and Rumelian regional costumes as well as musical instruments from the Turkic world. The museum is notable for its artifacts reflecting cultural diversity.
Opened in 2021, the Izmir Literature Museum Library offers a special collection featuring works and objects of Izmir-born authors, along with facsimile editions of manuscripts. Among the prominent exhibits are the first edition of Ataturk's Geometry book, a signed book by Halit Ziya, and Attila Ilhan's beret.
The second largest natural history museum established in Turkey, the Ege University Natural History Museum is also the country's first academic museum housed in a university building. Located on the Ege University Faculty of Science campus, it features a rich collection of fossils and rocks spanning 4.5 billion years of Earth's history. There is a symbolic admission fee.
The Ege University Paper and Book Arts Museum presents the 2,000-year journey of the book through examples from different cultures. Displaying the world's smallest book and thinnest paper, the museum is one of the three major paper and book arts museums in the world.
Commissioned in 1865 by James Whittall for his daughter Jane and son-in-law Richard Wilkinson, Consul of Thessaloniki-Malaga-Manila, the mansion is one of Bornova's most distinguished Levantine buildings. Owned by the Wilkinson Family until 1985, the building was transferred to Ege University in 1997, restored in 2005, and named the "EU 50th Anniversary Mansion." Today it houses the EU Faculty of Fine Arts, Design, and Architecture.
One of Bornova's early education and public buildings, the Varipati Mansion was used as the Varipati Family's residence in the early 20th century. After hosting the Bornova Middle School from 1936 onward, the mansion currently serves as one of the service buildings of the Bornova Veterinary Control Institute.
The Tristram Mansion was built in 1904 by the British Tristram Family. One of the family's notable members is Uvedale Barrington Tristram (1826-1898).
Thought to have been built by a Greek family in the late 19th century, the Sirkehane served as the food production unit of Ege University Faculty of Agriculture throughout the 20th century. After restoration completed in 2010, the building was opened as the "EU Balkans and Anatolia Costumes Museum," making it the first museum established in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture within a university in Turkey.
Built in the early 20th century as a Levantine residence belonging to British Harwey, the Yellow Mansion was expropriated in the mid-1920s for the Izmir Agricultural District School. The mansion hosted Ataturk during his 1926 visit and is home to Turkey's first Ataturk bust. Today it serves as the Ege University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Dean's Office.
Built in the last quarter of the 19th century, the R. Whittall Mansion is the second largest residence of the Whittall family in Bornova. Known as the "Small House," the building is one of the distinctive representatives of British Levantine architecture in Bornova, with its simple facade design, garden-oriented plan layout, and wide windows. Today it serves as the Bornova District Directorate of National Education.
Built by Fondan d'Escalon, who settled in Bornova after the French Revolution, the Pierre Pagy Mansion passed through the La Fontaine, Whittall, and Giraud families to the Pagy Family through marriage and property transfers. Currently owned by the Fercken and Arkas families, descendants of Pagy, the mansion is an elegant representative of French Levantine heritage in Bornova.
