Odunpazari
Protected Ottoman Timber Quarter In Eskisehir, Restored And Painted; Home Of The Meerschaum Carving Trade And Of The Odunpazari Modern Museum Of 2019 · Eskisehir, Eskisehir
Eskisehir is a university city on a river in the middle of Anatolia, and it is the most relaxed place of its size in the country - two big student populations, bars along the Porsuk, gondolas on the water, and an attitude that surprises people arriving from anywhere more conservative. Odunpazari is its old quarter, climbing the slope above the river: Ottoman timber houses with overhanging upper floors, restored and painted in colours that are cheerful rather than authentic, and a trade in meerschaum, a soft white mineral mined only around this city and carved into pipes and figures. Since 2019 the quarter also holds the Odunpazari Modern Museum, a stack of interlocking timber boxes by Kengo Kuma showing contemporary Turkish art - a serious piece of architecture that has done more for the city's reputation than anything else in it, and that is ninety minutes from both Ankara and Istanbul by fast train.
Odunpazari, Eskisehir Merkez, Eskisehir, Eskisehir, Turkiye
The quarter is lived in and open at all hours. The Odunpazari Modern Museum, the meerschaum museum and the house museums keep daytime hours with a weekly closing day. Shops and cafes run through the day and into the evening; the city's student nightlife is along the Porsuk river rather than up here. Winter is cold and grey.