Guide
Before planning a visit: the ministry states that Beşkonaklar has been closed since 6 February 2023 for strengthening, maintenance and repair, with no completion date given.
Beşkonaklar — 'the five konaks' — is one of the surviving pieces of traditional domestic architecture in Malatya, built about 120 years ago by Hacı Sait Efendi (Turfanda) and his brothers for some of the city's leading families. It began as a two-storey konak with a rooftop belvedere, a projecting bay and a balcony, and four more houses in the same design were built onto it as a single composition.
Each house has two floors. A double-leaf door opens into the hayat or taslik, the hall generally used for sitting in summer; the rooms on either side of it served as kitchen and hearth, pantry and living room, with the courtyard beyond. Upstairs there is a central hall with rooms around it.
The display covers the crafts of the Malatya region: fabric block-printing, dress and accessories, kitchen equipment, lighting, measuring instruments, firearms and blades, and seals.
