The Sadi lodge in Samsun was one of the first places in Anatolia to declare support for the decision to fight the War of Independence, which began here on 19 May 1919, and that is why it is now a museum of the national forces. The metropolitan municipality restored the building in 2013 and turned it into the Kuvayı Milliye Museum.
It grew into a complex rather than a single museum, and the stages are recorded. At first the lodge alone was intended as the museum and its restoration was completed, but the idea then took hold that there should also be a memorial house for the fallen and for veterans, together with a diorama museum. The bagdadi-built house opposite the lodge was accordingly expropriated and restored as the memorial house, and the diorama area was built to its southwest. The remaining ground, shaped by the terrain, was filled with courtyards of different sizes arranged in terraces. The complex today consists of the lodge building, the memorial house, the diorama museum of the fallen, a canteen and lavatories, and five courtyards. The lodge is arranged as a thematic museum and holds seven wax figures. It is on Çifte Hamam Caddesi in the Selahiye quarter, served by the number 1 and 3 minibus routes and other public transport.
Getting there
- Access
- The museum is in the city centre. Dolmuş lines 1 and 3 reach it, as does other public transport.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Samsun as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 7.2 °C in February to 23.7 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in November (83 mm) and lightest in July (35 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
