Sultan Abdülaziz Imperial Lodge

Abdülaziz Hunting Lodge, also known as Kasr-ı Hümayun, is a Baroque and Empire style lodge located in İzmit. The building, which took its final form during the reign of Abdülaziz, is known as the only small palace built in the Ottoman Empire outside Istanbul. Its architect is Garabet Amira Balyan. It is currently used as a museum.

During the National Struggle years, the building hosted two important meetings held by Atatürk. The hunting lodge, which has been serving as a museum since 1967, was damaged in the earthquake of 17 August 1999. It reopened to visitors on 16 January 2007 as a "palace museum."

Ottoman period

During the Ottoman era, the first palace in İzmit was built in the reign of Murad IV. After the 1766 earthquake destroyed the structure, later palace buildings erected on the same site in various periods were burned down for different reasons. The hunting lodge that survives to the present was built in the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz. The wall remains beneath the existing building are thought to belong to the first palace built in the reign of Murad IV that was destroyed by the earthquake.

Among Ottoman sultans, the first to travel abroad was Mahmud II, who, when he arrived in İzmit in 1833, wanted a palace built west of the Altıncıoğlu Mansion where he stayed, overlooking the Shipyard. Thus, a new palace was constructed on the site of the palace built in the reign of Murad IV that later burned down. It is known that Mahmud II stayed in the "Kasr-ı Hümayun" during his second visit to İzmit in 1836.

II. The Kasr-ı Hümayun built during Mahmut's reign burned down in the Abdülmecid period and in its place a hunting lodge began to be built in 1855. The new building, which suffered a fire in 1859, took its final form during the reign of Abdülaziz. The architect of the rebuilt building is Garabet Amira Balyan, who is recorded in architectural history as the architect of Dolmabahçe Palace, because Abdülaziz attended the ceremony in İzmit in 1875, the year the Haydarpaşa‑İzmit railway was opened to service.

Sultan Reşat, who came to İzmit on 12 September 1909, is one of the Ottoman sultans who stayed in this building. The sultan, who arrived in İzmit by train, stayed one night in the hunting lodge and on 13 September 1909 returned to Istanbul by Sultan boat. While the sultan was in İzmit, two buildings with identical plans and projects were constructed next to each other for the accommodation of the state officials accompanying him. One of these twin structures has survived to the present day. The other was later demolished and a building serving as the Governor's Mansion was erected in its place.

This structure, the only small palace built outside Istanbul, served as the government mansion after the İzmit government mansion burned down; during the occupation period after World War I it was assigned for a time to the British; later it again became a government mansion.

Years of the War of Independence

During the War of Independence, two meetings held by the Commander‑in‑Chief Mustafa Kemal Paşa in this building are considered important for the country's history: one on 18 June 1922, when he met with the French writer Claude Farrère and narrated the liberation struggle he was conducting in the country; the other on 16 January 1923, a press conference with chief editors and journalists of several Istanbul newspapers in which he discussed the Lausanne Peace Conference, the fundamental principles of the new Turkish state, the form of government and administration, the issues of the Sultanate and Caliphate, reforms to be carried out in various areas of social life, and the establishment of a political party called a “People's Party.”

Conversion into a museum

The building was used by the Provincial and Agricultural Chambers during the Republican period. The Ministry of National Education turned the Av Köşkü building into a museum in 1964.

and decided to restore it for use as a library. Until that day the works in the garden of Necatibey Primary School, which had been used as a kind of depot‑museum, were transferred to the garden of Av Köşkü. The museum organized by archaeologist Mahmut Akok was officially opened to visitors on 27 June 1967. Archaeological finds in the building's garden, inside the interior

Here items belonging to the Ottoman palace and some ethnographic works were exhibited.

The museum building, restored in 1992, suffered severe damage in the earthquake of 17 August 1999. After the earthquake, the museum's restoration was completed in 2005 and it reopened to visitors on 16 January 2007 as "Palace-Museum".

Architectural features

The Abdülaziz Imperial Pavilion is a three-story stone building with a basement. It is a typical example of the pavilions built during the reign of Abdülaziz. Its exterior and wall paintings display Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, and Empire styles, giving it an eclectic character. The grand palace entrance faces west. The door used today as the museum entrance is on the south façade. There is also a non‑functional door on the east façade. The marble‑clad entrance on the south façade leads to the central entrance door via double‑sided stairs. The slender, tall, round‑arched windows dominating the façade resemble those of public buildings in the İzmit region. On the ground floor, the marble-floored salon has two rooms on each side and service rooms at the back. Two-way stairs at the rear of the central salon lead to the upper floor. On the upper floor, the central salon is flanked by two rooms, one used as a sitting room and the other as a bedroom.