The mansion stands on the Soğuksu ridge above Trabzon, on Ata Caddesi, with the town below it. Konstantin Kabayanidis had it built as a summer house in the early nineteenth century, in a manner that borrows from European and Western Renaissance architecture and wears its European ornament openly.
The plan is domestic and easy to follow. On the entrance floor there is a sitting room, a room for resting, a dining room and a guest room; on the first floor a study, a large bedroom, a waiting room and a meeting room; on the second, two small rooms.
Atatürk came here three times. On his first visit to Trabzon in 1924 he was received at the house but did not stay the night; in November 1930 he was received again and, the provincial directorate records, was very pleased with it. In June 1937 the house was arranged for him and he stayed two nights.
What happened on the second of those nights is why the house is a museum. On 11 June 1937, in this building, he decided to make over his entire property to the Turkish nation, drew up a list of it and sent it to the prime minister to be acted on. His words are recorded as: "Property and possessions weigh on me. I shall feel lighter for giving them to my nation. A person's wealth should lie in their own moral character. I want to give my great nation much more." The house was turned into a museum in 1943.
Getting there
- Access
- The mansion is at Soguksu in central Trabzon.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Trabzon as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 7.3 °C in February to 23.5 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in October (113 mm) and lightest in July (37 mm). Long-term means for 1927-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
