Guide
The museum sits in the middle of Kastamonu, 250 metres from Cumhuriyet Meydanı, at Isfendiyarbey Mahallesi, Cumhuriyet Caddesi No 6 — close enough to walk to, and served by the town's shared minibuses.
Its building has a political history longer than its museum one. It was designed by the architect Kemaleddin Bey and finished in 1917 as a clubhouse for the Committee of Union and Progress. In 1921 it served as an Independence Tribunal, and until 1945 it housed in turn the Turkish Hearth, the People's Party and the Kastamonu youth organisation. On 30 August 1925, in this hall, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk gave his second speech on the hat and dress reforms, the first having been made at İnebolu a few days earlier.
From 1945 it was used as a store for archaeological finds, and in 1952 it was turned into a regional museum. The collection was gathered from Kastamonu and the country around it, and covers a wide span of periods; the provincial guide presents it as material that lights up the early history of the region.
One part of the display is arranged as an Atatürk hall, showing photographs and various objects he used during his 1925 visit to the province — which keeps the building's own story and the collection in the same room.
