Antalya Toy Museum

Antalya Toy Museum is a toy museum affiliated with the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality that opened on April 23, 2011.

It is located in a historic caravanserai in the historic Kaleiçi Yacht Harbor. Its collection contains about 3,000 toys dating from the 1860s to the 1990s.

It is the third toy museum in Turkey.

History

The work for the establishment of the toy museum was initiated by the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality Department of Culture and Social Services in September 2010. As a result of the work carried out under the consultancy of Sunay Akın, founder of the Istanbul Toy Museum, the museum opened in a caravanserai at the historic Kaleiçi Yacht Harbor with a ceremony on April 23, 2011.

In July 2011 new toys were added to the collection and in September 2011 workshop activities for children's education also began.

Children can participate in these workshop activities individually or together with their families.

Antalya Toy Museum was recognized with an award in the "Living Culture Museums" category at the Museum Promotion Competition organized by the Association of Historic Towns in 2021 because of its contributions to city culture through the diversity it offers to the city's tourism and the educational programs carried out in cooperation with universities.

Various activities are carried out in the museum to increase sustainability. The museum offers wooden toy painting, mask‑making workshops, origami, kirigami, puzzles, clay sculpture, sand painting, painting art workshops, drama and acting workshops.

Museum building

The museum is housed in a former caravanserai that has been repurposed as a museum building in Kaleiçi. It has 11 halls and an amphitheater with a capacity of 500 people.

Collection

The museum displays approximately 750 toys, important examples of world toy history, in 11 halls and 44 vitrines.

The majority of the toys are productions of toy manufacturers such as Schuco, Lehma, Steiff, Louis Marks, Nekur, Fatoş.

Figures of characters such as Nasreddin Hoca and his donkey, the Smurfs, Cinderella and the Pumpkin Carriage, the Daltons, Red Kit, Mickey Mouse, Temel Reis and Keloğlan are included.

Toy examples produced by the first factories that emerged after the Industrial Revolution are present in the museum. Additionally, examples from toy history and the rarest examples of doll houses are in the museum.