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Prison-Turned Museum Attracts Thousands of Visitors in Turkey | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Former Turkish prison turned into museum. (Asharq Al-Awsat)


Ankara – A former prison located in Osmaniye province in southern Turkey has been transformed into a museum that attracts thousands of visitors each month who come to learn about the province’s traditions, its old lifestyle and lives of former inmates.

The building in Osmaniye’s Kadirli served as the city’s prison for 40 years, before being closed seven years ago and transformed into a museum last year.

Kadirli City Museum curator Cevahir Zararsız said the museum hosted more than 50,000 visitors from Turkey and abroad since its opening in 2016. She noted that it highlights the old lifestyle in the city and traditional professions, which have almost disappeared today, such as copper whitening, horse saddle and shoe production and blacksmithing.

A visitor said she was surprised to see such a place that once was a prison and felt as if she really were transported to the past.

Another visitor added that through his visit to the museum or the old prison, he learned about his ancestors’ life and the difficulties they faced at that time.