Guide
The building was a cloth mill. The old Sümerbank textile factory in Kayseri, which the Presidency describes as holding an important place in the industrial history of Türkiye, was restored between 2013 and 2016 by Emre Arolat Mimarlık and turned into the museum and library of Abdullah Gül, the eleventh President. The brief was not to erase what had been there: the traces of time were to stay visible and the good work of the earlier periods was to be kept, and the place was meant to go on being what the Sümerbank plant had been, a working public space of the city. The restoration went on to win the AAP prize for restoration and renovation and a citation in The Plan awards, both in 2017, after taking the World Architecture Award for cultural buildings and museums in 2016 and reaching the final of the World Architecture Festival in 2012.
The Presidency calls it the first Turkish example of the thematic presidential museum-libraries built in various countries, and says it is also the first museum of recent political and democratic history in the country. Its subject is Gül's life, the period he served in and the values he argued for.
The library is a research library weighted towards the social sciences. Its purchase lists were drawn up by a committee led by Hasan Bülent Kahraman and chaired by İlber Ortaylı, alongside art, literature and general cultural holdings. Gül gave a great many books from his own shelves, and the books presented to him during his presidency were moved here too, which is how a number of rare works came into the catalogue.
It is at the Sümer Yerleşkesi in Kocasinan, Kayseri. Entry is free and the ticket desk works from 09:00 to 17:30.
Visiting hours
- Visiting hours
- 09:00:00 - 17:30:00
