Balıkesir Kuva-yi Milliye Museum

Balıkesir Kuva-yi Milliye Museum

Balıkesir Kuva-yi Milliye Museum building was built in 1840 as the mansion of Karesi Sanjak Treasurer Giridizade Mehmet Pasha. After the occupation of İzmir on May 15, 1919, this building, where the people of Balıkesir gathered on May 16, 1919 and the decision of armed struggle in Western Anatolia was taken, served as the headquarters of the II. Corps Command for many years. The building, which was used as a municipal service building between 1947-1988, was transferred to the Ministry of Culture General Directorate of Antiquities for use as a museum in 1988 and was restored and opened to service as the "Balıkesir Kuva-yi Milliye Museum" on September 6, 1996.

The ground floor of the Kuva-yi Milliye Museum, which consists of two floors, was organized for the heroes who pioneered the establishment of the Kuva-yi Milliye in Balıkesir and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who visited Balıkesir seven times. The decisions taken by the heroes who founded the Kuva-yi Milliye, the decisions of the congress, the personal belongings of these heroes, their photographs and wax statues of Atatürk and his wife Latife Hanım are exhibited on this floor. On the second floor of the museum, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts reflecting the region's thousands of years of history, starting from prehistoric times in Balıkesir province and continuing uninterruptedly until today, are exhibited chronologically according to their find places. In the exhibition halls, where the names of the ancient cities of Kyzikos, Adramytteion, Daskyleion and Antandros are given, there are artifacts unearthed during the scientific and salvage excavations carried out in these cities and the surface surveys carried out in the provincial borders.