Where the anthem was written
A room in the Taceddin lodge where Mehmet Akif Ersoy composed the İstiklal Marşı in 1921, now a free museum closed Mondays.
BIG-K006 — CC BY 4.0 · Omer Unlu from Ankara, Turkey — CC BY 2.0
Turkey's national anthem was written here, in a small room of a dervish lodge in 1921, in a neighbourhood that twenty years ago was a cluster of Ottoman houses quietly falling down. Altındağ's district council rebuilt it house by house between 2006 and 2011, and the timber homes with their jutting bay windows and white-and-ochre paint came back. Hamamönü is now one of the few corners of Ankara that look like an Ottoman town rather than a republican capital built in a hurry. What you do is simple: wander the lanes, sit in a courtyard for Turkish coffee or a gözleme, watch marbling and calligraphy being made in the workshops of the so-called Art Street. Three things merit going inside. The Karacabey Hamam, finished in 1440 and still working, was built as a double bath with a men's side and a women's side; expect to pay a few hundred lira for entry, with scrub and massage extra, and ask ahead whether the women's side is open that day. The Mehmet Akif Ersoy house at the Taceddin lodge is a free museum, open 10:00-17:00 and closed Mondays. And a few minutes' walk away is Ulucanlar Prison Museum, a jail in use from 1925 to 2006 and now a sobering museum for a small municipal fee (around 60-100 lira), open 10:00-16:00 and also closed Mondays. Be clear about what this is: a restoration, not a district that survived untouched. Some houses were rebuilt from scratch in the old style, so the effect is polished rather than weathered, a pocket-sized Safranbolu that needs no more than two hours. Its finest hour is a Ramadan evening, when the council sets up rows of stalls and stages Karagöz shadow plays and Sufi music after iftar; restaurants fill up, so book ahead. Weekend afternoons fill the square; in Ankara's snowy winter the lanes are lovely but the cafes retreat indoors. It works well for families and pushchairs, the lanes being mostly level with some uneven stone, and small Ottoman mosques dot the area, notably Taceddin Mosque beside the museum. It is ten minutes on foot from Ulus and a quarter-hour by taxi from Kızılay; the smart move is to pair it with Ankara Castle and the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations nearby and arrive late in the day, when the cafes open up and the bay windows are lit.
A room in the Taceddin lodge where Mehmet Akif Ersoy composed the İstiklal Marşı in 1921, now a free museum closed Mondays.
A working double bath finished in 1440, with a men's side and a women's side, and the reason the neighbourhood carries its name.
Council-run stalls, Karagöz shadow plays and Sufi music after iftar make this the best time of year to come.
Hacettepe Mahallesi, Hamamönü Square, Altındağ, Ankara
Çengelhan Rahmi M. Koç MuseumA boy called Vehbi Koç once spent his summer holidays behind the counter of a sm6 min walk4.7
Erimtan Archaeology and Arts MuseumIt started with a few Roman ring stones, bought by a Turkish engineer in 1960, a7 min walk4.4
Museum of Anatolian CivilizationsUnder the ten domes of a fifteenth-century covered market where Ankara's merchan8 min walk4.7
Ankara Painting and Sculpture MuseumHalf the ticket price here buys the building, not the paintings. The palace that10 min walk4.8
Ulucanlar Prison MuseumThe gallows are still standing. In the back yard of this prison, at dawn on 6 Ma11 min walk4.6Yes, but as part of the same outing rather than a separate trip: it sits minutes from the castle and the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations, and an hour or two covers it. Do not give it a full day or expect Safranbolu; it is a neat restoration on a small footprint.
Yes, in principle. It was built as a double bath with a women's side and a men's side, each with its own entrance, and there are no mixed sessions; the women's side has not always been in use, though, so phone or ask at the door before planning around it. Entry is a few hundred lira, with scrub and massage charged on top.
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