First faculty of medicine to become Seljuk Museum

KAYSERİ - Anatolia News Agency

The Seljuk Civilization Museum will be the first one dedicated on the Seljuk Empire and display objects from this civilization. AA photo

Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality is planning to turn the Gevher Nesibe Madrasah, which is known as the first faculty of medicine in Anatolia, into a museum where objects from the Seljuk civilization will be on display.

Mayor Mehmet Özhaseki said that although the central Anatolian province of Kayseri had a history going back thousands of years, they did not know where to show this to visitors of the city. “We have prepared the Culture Road Project to fill this gap,” he said. “Roads are being reconstructed on the route starting from the Gevher Nesibe Madrasah and continuing to the Cumhuriyet Square, Yoğunburç, Kiçikapı and Kayseri Neighborhood. The resting places for people and the furniture are fully restored. Among them, we give importance to seven points. One of them is the Kaleiçi Project, for which we organized a contest five years ago. A group from Istanbul won the contest. Now we will establish a culture and art center there. Archaeology Museum will open inside there. We have made a deal with the Culture and Tourism Ministry; it will carry the artworks in the old museum to this place but we will operate this museum with the ministry’s help. There will also be a venue in the upper floor where street artists will give performances, handcrafts will be exhibited and so on. But it will never overshadow this historic place.”

Özhasek said that they were planning to open the center in two years at most. “There will be archaeological excavations in the area first,” he added.

‘Seljuks do not have a museum’

Özhaseki said that the second important project was museums. He said that the life of the Seljuk civilization had been spent with wars with the Crusaders, adding, “The Great Seljuk Empire does not have a museum just like the Anatolian Seljuk Empire. This is why we establish the Seljuk Museum to highlight that Kayseri is a Seljuk city. We have taken over the Gevher Nesibe Madrasah from the General Directorate of Foundations. The museum will open in October at the latest. The Seljuk Empire will be described and artworks from this era will be displayed in the museum.”

The Seljuk Civilization Museum will be the richest museum on the Seljuk Empire, according to the Metropolitan Municipality Projects Department Director Hamdi Elcüman, who said that the madrasah had been previously restored. Elcüman said that they had collected nearly 700 Seljuk artworks for the museum and created one of the richest Seljuk collections in Turkey.

“There will be many interactive applications in the museum as well as historic artifacts. There will also be special playing areas for children to love museums. It will be Turkey’s largest Seljuk Museum and a monumental structure,” he added.