The city museum is in the Sokullu Mehmet Paşa Bedesten, the covered market that Niğde Municipality restored for the purpose, so the building is part of what you come to see.
Inside, the display works by recognition rather than chronology. Wax figures of people Niğde is known for stand alongside models of the buildings of the town, with local dress and household objects filling out the rest. Workshops for children reconstruct the trades of the past and let them be tried rather than read about.
A good deal of what is on show came from the public. Objects were donated by people from the districts and villages and taken into the collection through the proper legal procedure, and the research behind the labels was done with Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University.
The project ran over two years. The regional conservation board in Kayseri approved the start of restoration in February 2022, the Directorate of Foundations allocated the bedesten to the municipality for ten years, the restoration and display projects were approved in June and July 2022, and the site was handed over that December. The museum opened to the public on 27 March 2024.
Visiting hours
- Visiting hours
- 09:00 - 18:00
Entry fee
- Entry fee
- Free
When to go
- Climate
- Across Niğde as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -0.2 °C in January to 22.6 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (48 mm) and lightest in July (6 mm). Long-term means for 1935-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
