Russian Tsar’s lodge to be turned into hotel

KARS

A tender notice has been published by Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry to rent a hunting lodge built by the Russian Tsar Nicholas II in the eastern province of Kars for 49 years.

The 124-year-old historical building, known as the “Katherina Mansion” by locals although it was built as a rehabilitation center for the Tsar’s sick son, Aleksi, and hunting purposes, will be a hotel.

The structure, which was built in the style of Baltic architecture from yellow pine trees unique to the province’s Sarıkamış district, without the using of any nails, consists of two separate structures as a hunting lodge and the main mansion.

Access to the site, which is four kilometers from the Cıbıltepe Ski Center and one kilometer from the center of Sarıkamış, is provided through a forest path of breathtaking natural beauty.

Having remained under Russian rule for 40 years after the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War, the mansion was used for military purposes until 1994, and it has been idle since then.