Guide
Adatepe is a working oil press that is also a museum, and it has been open since 2001 in the old soap works at the entrance to Küçükkuyu, on the Çanakkale-İzmir road. The museum describes itself as the first of its kind in Türkiye.
The reason it was set up is stated plainly on its own page: olive and olive oil run deep in the culture of this country, yet almost nothing had been written down or shown about them. The restored building answers that in two ways at once — oil is still pressed here by the dry method, and the tools of the trade, gathered from the villages round about, are displayed in the same rooms.
What you will see: old presses, the implements used to gather olives, the vessels they were carried and kept in, and a range of folkloric objects. The making of soap from olive oil in the traditional way is set out step by step, as are the stages of producing, storing, decanting and filtering the oil — in effect the route from the branch to the table, which visitors can also taste, on fresh village bread.
Labels are in Turkish and English, and staff will go into more detail if you ask. There is a shop selling olives, oil, natural soap, kitchen pieces and books, and the Adatepe kitchen serves tea and coffee, cold and fresh juices, and local olive-oil dishes made with natural ingredients; groups are advised to book ahead.
The museum opens seven days a week, 09:00 to 16:30, and entry is free.
