Trabzon Ataturk Pavilion

After the declaration of the Republic the great tour of the nation, named as The Autumn Tour, was started from Dumlupinar. After arriving to Bursa from there, Atatürk went to Mudanya and from there sailed to Black Sea via Bosporus on board the Hamidiye cruiser.

On 15 September 1924 arrived to Trabzon at 11:00 p.m. Atatürk, his wife Latife and his close friends received a warm welcome from the people of Trabzon. Atatürk directly arrived to Municipality. In the afternoon they went to the lodge at Soguksu to rest. The lodge was built in 1913, after the declaration of the Republic the ownership was passed to the Private administration. It was a four-storey building with the basement. The large room on the third floor was the bedroom of Atatürk. The same night the mayor of Trabzon Hüseyin Kazazoglu gave a dinner in honour of Atatürk and made a speech. Atatürk, in reply to this speech, said; “Gentlemen, I have seen almost all the people of Trabzon in a mass of sincerity. I have seen tears in the eyes of women, children and elders. What an emotion, what compassion, and what nobility this is”. And thanked the people of Trabzon.

The next day, after visiting the schools, the hospital and the yarn factory, in the morning of 17 September 1924 he left Trabzon for Rize.

After Trabzon’s visit of Atatürk, the lodge belonging to the Private Administration was purchased by the Trabzon municipality and presented to Atatürk as a gift. A delegate of Trabzon arrived to Ankara and delivered the deed and keys of the lodge to Atatürk. On 27 November 1930, when Atatürk arrived from Samsun to Trabzon with the Ege steamboat, spent the night in this lodge, and returned to Istanbul. The lodge was named as Atatürk Lodge by Trabzon people and they took pride with it.

Atatürk’s third and last arrival to Trabzon encounters to 10 June 1937. After arriving from Istanbul to Trabzon with Ege steamboat, Atatürk directly went to his lodge and spent two nights in there. On his last visit, he said: “the real estates and properties becomes a burden to me, I will be relieved when I donate these to my people. The wealth of a person should be within his own morale. I would like to give many more things to my great people” and donated all his belongings to the Treasury in the presence of the notary public. On 12 June 1937 morning Atatürk returned to Istanbul from Trabzon.

After Atatürk’s death, the Trabzon municipality decided to open the Atatürk Lodge to the public as a museum. Atatürk’s belongings and photographs exhibited in the museum. Today, in the entrance of the lodge, the full speech, made by Atatürk at his first arrival to Trabzon, is hanged. The small room on the right was set with various photographs taken during his life and during his visits to Trabzon. In the next room it can be seen the armchairs and the sofas that Atatürk rested. On one of them, the following sentence was written on a plate: “In here Atatürk signed the document stating the donation of all his belongings to the people”. The other room was furnished as the dining room of Atatürk.

In the third floor of the lodge Atatürk’s bedroom, bathroom, aide’s rooms and the study room can be seen. Today the lodge, with its large flower garden, is one of the most beautiful houses of Trabzon and is open to visitors as the Atatürk Museum under the management of the Trabzon municipality.