The project for a city archive and museum was proposed in 1999 by Ahmet Piriştina, mayor of İzmir, and prepared in 2000. The building, begun in 1930, had served as the fire brigade headquarters between 1932 and 2001.
The museum opened on 10 January 2004 as the İzmir City Archive and Museum, and was given Piriştina's name later that year, after he died in office on 6 July. Holding documents and works on the history of İzmir, it is, according to Turkish Wikipedia, the first city archive and city museum in Türkiye.
In 2018 the museum received the Archive and Collection Museum Award given by the Union of Historical Towns. Its archive was made available to researchers online in December 2019, and in April 2026 the building was added to the European Route of Industrial Heritage.
When to go
- Climate
- Across İzmir as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 8.9 °C in January to 28 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in April, May, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (146 mm) and lightest in July (4 mm). Long-term means for 1938-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
