Uşakizade Mansion

Uşakizade Mansion is a mansion located in the city of İzmir, Turkey.

History

Uşakizade Mansion was built in 1860 by Uşakizade Sadık Bey. The district where the mansion is located was chosen because of its cool climate. The glass pavilion in the mansion's garden was arranged by Sadık Bey as a place where neighborhood children would receive education, including his son Uşakizade Muammer Bey and his granddaughter Latife Hanım.

After the Turkish army's victory in the Battle of Sakarya, Latife Hanım, who was then studying at a university in Paris, returned to the mansion and began waiting for the day İzmir would be liberated from Greek occupation. One day after the Liberation of İzmir on 10 September 1922, Salih Bozok, the chief aide searching for a safe place for Mustafa Kemal Paşa, who had arrived in İzmir, learned from the mansion's gardener that Latife Hanım had returned and met her. Bozok asked Latife Hanım whether Mustafa Kemal Paşa could stay in the mansion and, receiving an affirmative answer, conveyed the situation to Mustafa Kemal Paşa. Mustafa Kemal Paşa came to the mansion for the first time on 13 September 1922 and met Latife Hanım. Not staying in the mansion during his first four nights in the city, Mustafa Kemal Paşa left the place where he had been staying because of the Great İzmir Fire and came to the mansion on 14 September, remaining there for sixteen days as the headquarters of the supreme command. After the death of his mother Zübeyde Hanım, he returned to İzmir once more and stayed in the mansion, marrying Latife Hanım in a ceremony held in the mansion on 29 January 1923. A month later, when he came to the city to open the İzmir Economic Congress, he stayed in the mansion again. In total, having visited five times and stayed ninety‑one days, the last stay was from 2 January to 22 February 1924, during which Mustafa Kemal Paşa spent fifty‑two days in the mansion and the decision to establish Türkiye İş Bankası was made during this visit.

Uşakizade Mansion was rented by İzmir Özel Türk Koleji in 1951 and began to be used as a school building. In 1980 the ownership of the mansion passed to the Tatış family, the founders of the school. In 1991 it was decided to restore the mansion. The restoration, which started on 16 May 1998, was completed on 15 June 2001. After this date the mansion began to serve as a museum. In 2003 it won the Main Restoration Award in the category of Successful Conservation in the Scale of Single Building and Historic Fabric at the Local Heritage Conservation Awards of Respect for History distributed by İzmir Metropolitan Municipality.

Architecture

Built together with Bodrum as a three‑storey mansion, it is one of the examples of Aegean architecture. The first floor is reached by stairs that start from both sides and meet at the entrance. The mansion has four rooms on the ground floor and six rooms on the upper floor.