Kaş’s museum hotel draws attention

ANTALYA - Doğan News Agency

A 77-year-old restored horse cart welcomes guests at the entrance to the Viewpoint Hotel in the ancient village of Patara which has a collection of over 300 antiques. DHA photo

A boutique hotel run by Muzaffer Otlu in the southern province of Antalya’s Kaş district resembles a city museum with its collection of over 300 antiques, which are drawing great from visitors.

Otlu, a former French instructor, left his profession after seven years and went into tourism management in 1986. Otlu has transformed the 60-bed “Viewpoint Hotel” in the ancient village of Patara into a museum.

At expositions he attended abroad, Otlu had a chance to observe boutique hotels, which inspired him to collect nearly 300 historical and authentic items from local towns and villages and exhibit them inside and outside the hotel. A 77-year-old restored horse cart brought from the town of Elmalı, Antalya, welcomes guests at the entrance to the museum hotel. Next to the horse cart, a Lycian sarcophagus made of Myra stone takes vacationers back to the past.

In the front yard, a tractor brought from the United States to Turkey in 1947 is exhibited. Antique farm tools once used by Turkish farmers such as grindstones and olive oil presses are also on display. The front yard hosts molasses and water containers, iron tools, a spinning wheel, a well and old kitchen utensils. Old pistols, knitted clothes and tapestries embellish the walls of the hotel.

“My friends recommended that I holiday at this hotel. I feel as if I came to a museum rather than a hotel; these great antiques bring the past to the future,” said Irish tourist Stefani Arthur.

“I have collected antique tools and transformed the hotel into a museum. Domestic and foreign tourists enjoy their holidays here; tourism doesn’t only mean sea, sand and sun. It should be our responsibility to teach our culture and carry it to the future,” Otlu said.