Ataturk's Pavilion

In Trabzon

As i sat yesterday home looking throw my window how the rain was pouring down i started thinking what else there is to see in Trabzon , besides the usual places i already went or visited . The city is full with tourists during this time of year ( mostly Arabs ) and they all love to go to this three places : Uzungol lake which i already went and i wrote a post about it , Sumela Monastery which i told you guys in my previous posts how i am planning to go for over an year and is still under renovation ( such a boomer ) and there is actually one place inside the city which i skipped for some time , until today .

Let me tell you something about Turkey and his greatest man , Ataturk , all over the country he has villas or houses which are now turned into great museums or such great heritages for the nation and tourists , but literally in every city he has at least 2 or 3 houses like this , the thing with them is actually the fact that at one point in time Ataturk he either took a trip or a visit in one of this cities and probably stayed there for couple of days and after the people decided to turn them into great museums , which is understandable but there are so many in Turkey like he owned around 200 or more houses and they are all museums now . Hello he just stayed there for 2 days so is not such a big deal . But yeah until now you probably figure it out i am talking about a villa exactly like that which i went today to see .

Me skipping the visit for such a long time i think is understandable because of my excuse above but i said is the only thing i still didn't visit inside the city so when i woke up today the sun was shinning and i said let's go , why not ? maybe it will be nice after all !

Said and done i went to Ataturk's pavilion ...

The villa a.k.a The pavilion

Me and Muhammet we took a mini bus until up in the mountains , i found the road pretty long i did not expected that , around 15 minutes by bus and the road is high in the mountains and you will pass such a luxuries forest with super high trees and vegetation , as i said to my boyfriend it's like we are in another country . And on the road up we saw some brides talking photos in the forest which was odd but yeah .

We arrived in front of the Pavilion and i immediately noticed a bunch of tourists which was surprising for me because in the city center i don't get to see them this days so i taught the touristic season might be over , but i was wrong , many nationalities but most of them Arabs . The bus driver asked us 20 TL because he brought us until the top but Muhammet just gave him 10 because why not this is Turkey and everything is negotiable here . We already bought with us our museums cards which we have made during our trip to Aspendos ( check Alanya blog post ) and this cards promised us one year of free entries in all the museums and more around the country , but guess what they didn't accept it so we paid like everybody else . The entree fee was 1,50 TL students discount .

The story

The house is looking exactly how i google it , i took fast a picture and i started to read the legend behind this villa . So the story says that first this house belonged to a Greek rich guy named Konstantin Kabayanidis who was a banker from Trabzon . He build this house more like a summer residence . In the year of 1923 the villa was given to the treasure city . First time Ataturk came to Trabzon he visited this house and felt so much i love with it , it was in 1924 . The municipality and the city who owned this house decided to give this house as a gift to Ataturk . He came and stayed here for only one night in 1930 and then again in 1937 when he stayed 2 nights and it was his last visit to Trabzon . So in total he stayed just 3 nights in this pavilion .

After the short visits Ataturk decided to return the house to the city and the people so in 1943 the municipality turned the house into a museum .

The villa has 3 floors and is surrounded by a small but beautiful garden , and in the back there is a place where you can sit and drink a hot tea . The surrounding are all covered with high trees and deep forest .

On the first level as you enter the mansion there is like a pool table in the middle and a huge blue chandelier  which is the first thing you notice when you enter .

I guess is like a relaxation room , and on the same level there is a kitchen and another two rooms for meetings .

On the second level there are around 4 rooms and almost all with balconies , one extra large from where i took the picture with trees in front and the other rather small but you still could see a nice view over the main garden in front .

The garden is somehow a super small model of what it wants to be like a Versailles lookalike . And with a small pool in which i noticed some fish swimming. But of course the main attraction is the house .

As i continued my tour on the second level i noticed the main bedroom in which i guess Ataturk slept in those exactly 3 nights and another sitting room and yeah a bathroom which was too dirty and ugly to take a picture , but trust me nothing special .

The master bedroom

And probably the living room .

On the third and last floor there were just 3 rooms and very small . But on the stairs until up bunch of pictures with Ataturk during some special moments in life .

Overall this was the pavilion , not so impressing to tell you the truth , maybe because i have seen this type of ''Ataturk's houses '' before on every city i went . First time i found them pretty interesting and nice but after i saw how many there are in Turkey and basically all looking the same , the bedroom , the sitting area the ...etc etc . I skipped visiting them on my trips . But to tell you most i enjoyed today was the trip back down from the mountains , i found some amazing views and sights which totally inspired me and made by day .

The house itself is in very good condition and this is a look from the back , super white painted and very welcoming and grandiose .

And to end in a positive note here's a picture with me as well . But all in all if you are into Turkish history and Ataturk so much then for sure you cannot miss this touristic point in Trabzon . I mean if the foreign people love it then it must to be something special about the place . But i will tell you the surrounding which are pure wild nature gives this place an A plus for sure .

Wish you all a great Saturday !