The building that houses Erzurum's painting and sculpture museum is the one where the Erzurum Kongresi first met. Mıgırdiç Sanasaryan had it built in 1864, and it first served as the Sanasaryan Koleji, a girls' boarding school; before the founding of the republic it was bought and passed to the state.
In late 1924 a fire destroyed its wooden parts. After repairs it reopened in 1926 as the Gazi İlkokulu and later housed the Güzel Sanatlar Lisesi and the Sosyal Bilimler Lisesi. In 1960 one of its halls opened to visitors as the Atatürk and Erzurum Kongresi museum. After restoration by the Turkish parliament between 2011 and 2013 the building was handed to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and it is now home to the Atatürk painting and sculpture museum and gallery.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Erzurum as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -9.1 °C in January to 19.6 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in July and August; rainfall is heaviest in May (73 mm) and lightest in August (18 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
