Guide
The Zeytinburnu Mosaic Museum is inside the old military hospital building that now serves as the Kazlıçeşme Arts Centre, and it exists because of what the restoration found. During work begun in 2015, test pits about a metre and a half below the building uncovered substantial mosaics — one of the largest mosaic areas outside the city walls of İstanbul, according to the ministry.
The mosaics date to the 4th and 5th centuries AD and are worked in geometric patterns, star and polygon compositions and plant motifs.
They are not the only thing in the ground here. A brick tomb, a marble sarcophagus and human skeletons belonging to them were found alongside, together with terracotta vessels and coins of different centuries — evidence that the site was in use over a long period.
Because the excavation sits inside a working arts centre, a visit takes in more than the archaeology: the same complex holds a library, an exhibition hall and other cultural spaces.
