The museum was founded in 1965 within Çeşme Castle as a museum of weapons. Because the works displayed began to rust in the high humidity, they were sent to the İzmir Archaeological Museum and the Ödemiş Museum. The building was arranged as a general museum in 1984 and continues in that use today.
The castle that holds the museum bears traces of a first fortress built by the Genoese in the 15th century to guard sea trade between Çeşme and Chios. In 1508–1509, under Sultan Bayezid II, it was enlarged and repaired and became an Ottoman castle, so Genoese and Ottoman building styles can be seen together. Rectangular in plan, it stands on a rocky slope with the sea to the west and a moat on its other three sides, and the main gate is on the south front. It was in use until the 19th century and then abandoned. The weapons shown here when the museum opened in 1965 had been brought from Topkapı Palace in İstanbul.
One section shows terracotta works of the Archaic, Roman and Byzantine periods. Another holds terracotta figurines, amphorae and silver and copper coins found in the rescue excavations at the ancient city of Erythrae in the Ildırı area of Çeşme.
Some of the most important pieces come from Bağlararası, a Bronze Age settlement in the middle of Çeşme that the ministry counts among the earliest centres of wine making. Excavations there uncovered what the ministry calls the oldest winery building in Anatolia, dating from the Bronze Age, with an arrangement for letting the wine settle and storing it. They also showed that a powerful earthquake around 3,700 years ago levelled the settlement and brought life there to an end. Handmade pottery from Bağlararası is shown together with statues, figurines and coins from Erythrai.
Another hall is devoted to the Ottoman–Russian naval battle of 1770 at Çeşme, with maps, posters, flags, medals and objects from a sunken Russian flagship. A separate hall shows amphorae brought up from the sea, a good introduction to seaborne trade in antiquity. Erythrai itself lies at Ildırı, 22 km from Çeşme; digs there have brought to light a temple of Athena, a theatre, a monumental tomb known as the heroon, Hellenistic and Roman villas and the city walls.
Entry fee
- Single entry to the museum or site · Local
- MüzeKart
- Single entry to the museum or site · Foreign
- €6
Visiting hours
- Hours
- 08:30 - 21:00
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).
