Bursa Health History Museum

Nilüfer Municipality Dr. Ceyhun İrgil Health Museum, opened to visitors in 2024 in the İhsaniye neighborhood of Bursa; it is a museum where the collection of health objects and documents formed by Dr. Ceyhun İrgil and the donations of health workers and their families living and working in Bursa is exhibited.

It was opened by Nilüfer Municipality in a building that previously functioned as a family health center. Its collection includes objects and documents related to medical, dental, ophthalmic, veterinary and pharmaceutical work in Bursa.

The museum was arranged with special emphasis on the national struggle period due to the 100th anniversary of the Republic. Health supplies from the War of Independence period and the furnishings of the hospital room where Mustafa Kemal Paşa received treatment in Bursa in 1926 are among the objects displayed in the museum.

History

The collection of health objects and documents created by general surgery specialist Ceyhun İrgil over a 20‑year effort starting from his student years was first exhibited in 2006 in the corridors of the Muradiye madrasa, at the Döne Ocak Early Cancer Diagnosis and Screening Center affiliated with Ali Osman Sönmez Oncology Hospital.

Following studies carried out from 2010 to 2017 with the support of the Bursa City Council in the field of medical history, a two‑volume book titled Bursa Health History was prepared under İrgil’s editorship, and the collection expanded during the book’s preparation. The collection that no longer fit in the Muradiye madrasa began to be exhibited in 2018 at the Bursa Health History Museum located in the historic Yerkapı Mansion in the Pınarbaşı neighborhood, opened by the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality. This museum was closed in 2020 as part of the municipality’s downsizing policy, and the collection was stored for two years in a warehouse belonging to Nilüfer Municipality.

At the suggestion of Irgil, the Nilüfer Municipality decided to establish a health museum in the Nilüfer district in the 100th year of the Republic. A building that previously served as a family health center in İhsaniye neighborhood was renovated and entered service in 2024 as the Dr. Ceyhun Irgil Health Museum.

The museum's section dedicated to eye diseases, named the Turgut Dolunay-Çakar Eye and Optics Section, opened on 14 March 2025.

Exhibition

It is established on an area of 1200 square meters. 8 thousand objects, 2 thousand documents and photographs are exhibited.

The museum layout was arranged with special emphasis on the National Liberation War period due to the 100th year of the Republic. In the section describing health efforts in World War I and the War of Independence and the martyr doctors, objects belonging to the Red Crescent, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Defense from those periods are exhibited. A special section is organized for the items used in the room where Mustafa Kemal Pasha received treatment during his fifth visit to Bursa in 1926 at the Bursa Military Hospital. In the dentistry section, the dental unit used by Dr. Recep Aydoğdu for fifty years is displayed.

The museum also has a section displaying real animal organs and skeletons that the Ministry of National Education sent to schools for educational purposes in science lessons until the 1980s, as well as 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9 month-old embryos showing genetic disorders and birth anomalies, and gallstones extracted by Ceyhun Irgil in the 1990s.

Outside the exhibition area, the museum includes an education center, a medical history research center, two libraries, and education and event halls.