Amasya - Ottoman House / Hazeranlar Konagi

(Local Name: Hazeranlar Konagi) Below the citadel, in the Hatuniye district of Amasya, on the Yesilirmak embankment not far from the Bülbül Hatun Camii, stands a superb old Ottoman town house of 1872. Beautifully restored and now open as a museum, it was the home of a court pharmacist Hasan Talât Efendi who, as Aziz Mahmud Efendi, became established in Amasya in the 1860s. He built the house after being banished from the sultan's palace.

The comfortably appointed, solidly built, two-storyed house has a large forecourt and a cellar running from one end of the building to the other (now used for lectures/displays). The rooms on the ground floor, grouped around a spacious hall, were chiefly intended for domestic use and comprised kitchens, servants' quarters, dining-rooms and lavatory. The private accommodation, also leading off a generously-sized hall, was on the first floor. It included a winter- and coffee room, bedrooms with showers and baths, a dressing room, a large reception-cum-living area and a ladies' drawing-room.