Guide
The house where the poet Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı was born and spent his childhood was built in 1733. It carries all the features of the traditional domestic architecture of Diyarbakır: four wings ranged around a central courtyard, a ground floor and one storey above, built entirely of basalt.
The building was originally divided into private and public quarters; the public part has been lost and the private part survives. It is laid out for the climate, with a summer section on the south, a winter section on the north, a spring section on the east and an autumn section on the west. On the faces looking onto the courtyard, the decorative elements known as cas are used to good effect, lightening the heaviness of the basalt and giving the building some movement.
Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı was born in this house on 2 October 1910 and passed his childhood and youth here. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism bought the house in 1973, restored it, and opened it as a museum on 19 October 1973, in the fiftieth year of the republic, to keep his memory alive.
On display are his personal belongings: a pen, a comb and its case, a cufflink and his passport.
The museum stands on Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı Sokak in the Camii Kebir quarter of Sur. Between 1 April and 31 October it is open from 8.30 to 19.00, including Mondays; for the rest of the year it is open from 8.30 to 17.00 and closed on Mondays. There is a charge for entry.
