The furnished haremlik
Period rooms with costumed mannequins, carved timber ceilings, the tokana kitchen and a private hammam
The oldest house still standing in Kayseri went up between 1419 and 1497 in the old quarter just below the castle, five centuries before the house you live in was even an idea. The wealthy Güpgüpoğlu family kept adding rooms until the 18th century; the traveller Evliya Çelebi noted the house on his 1649 visit; the state bought it in 1976 and turned it into a museum. Service rooms and storage sat downstairs, people upstairs, and that one arrangement tells you most of what you need to know about how an Anatolian notable lived two centuries ago. Like every self-respecting Ottoman mansion it is split in two: the haremlik on the right for the family, the selamlık on the left for receiving men, the pair meeting around a stone-paved courtyard with a carved pool. The haremlik is the half worth your time. It is furnished as a museum-house with costumed mannequins, and takes in the main hall, the harem room, the big kitchen known as the tokana and a private hammam, a later addition, whose carved and painted woodwork is the finest in the house. The selamlık, reached by a stone staircase with a wooden rail, has its own reception hall, a small so-called coffee kitchen and a half-open pavilion on slender timber columns under a painted ceiling. Do not miss that pavilion; it is the prettiest corner of the place. The selamlık rooms hold the ethnography museum proper, moved here in 1998 from the Hunat Hatun medrese: men's and women's costume, jewellery, weapons, carpets and kilims, manuscripts, tiles and copperware from the Kayseri region, with Islamic tombstones in the garden. The house has been restored in recent years, but labelling is still thin and the place is quiet enough that you may well have it to yourself. Practically: allow about an hour. There are stone stairs and narrow passages, so pushchairs are out, though children of seven or eight upwards enjoy the mannequins and furnished rooms. It sits a few minutes on foot from Cumhuriyet Square, the Atatürk House and the covered bazaar, so fold it into a walk around the old town rather than treating it as a destination in itself. If Kayseri is a stopover on the way to Cappadocia or Mount Erciyes, this is the best hour you will spend in the city proper.
Period rooms with costumed mannequins, carved timber ceilings, the tokana kitchen and a private hammam
Slender timber columns under a painted ceiling overlooking a stone courtyard with a carved pool
Regional costume, jewellery, carpets, manuscripts and tiles, plus Islamic tombstones in the garden
Cumhuriyet Mahallesi, Tennuri Sokak No:1, Melikgazi, Kayseri
Yes, it is the best hour you can spend inside the city itself; it is a few minutes on foot from the castle and Cumhuriyet Square, so pair it with a quick loop of the covered bazaar. With under an hour, skip it and just walk the bazaar and the castle exterior.
This one suits older children better because the furnished rooms and mannequins tell a story they can follow, but the stone stairs rule out pushchairs. With under-sixes neither museum will hold anyone's attention for long.