Sait Faik Abasıyanık Museum in Burgaz Adası, Turkey

Sait Faik Abasıyanık Museum occupies the Burgazada house closely associated with the later life and writing of Sait Faik Abasıyanık, one of the leading figures of modern Turkish short-story writing. The museum preserves the writer’s personal belongings, photographs, letters, postcards, documents, and other material connected with his life and work inside the house where he spent long periods and wrote many of his stories.

Sait Faik’s House on Burgazada

The Abasıyanık family bought the Burgazada house in August 1938. Sait Faik’s father, Mehmet Faik Bey, died later that year. After his father’s death, Sait Faik generally spent winters in the family’s Istanbul home and summers on Burgazada with his mother, Makbule Abasıyanık.

Burgazada became more central to his daily life after his health deteriorated in the 1940s. By 1945 he was spending much of his time on the island. The house therefore represents an actual setting from his life rather than a later memorial assembled in an unrelated building. Darüşşafaka describes it as the house where Sait Faik lived for many years and wrote many of his stories.

This relationship between writer and place also gives the museum a direct connection to the Burgazada that appears throughout Sait Faik’s literary life. His writing frequently drew on people and everyday scenes he encountered around Istanbul and the islands, making the preserved house part of the physical environment in which he observed, lived, and wrote.

How the House Became a Museum

Sait Faik’s connection with Darüşşafaka developed shortly before his death. In 1954 he attended a literary event at Darüşşafaka High School and later visited the institution. According to the museum’s account, he returned home impressed by the school and suggested to his mother that their property should eventually be donated to Darüşşafaka.

Sait Faik died on May 11, 1954. On November 8 of the same year, Makbule Abasıyanık prepared a will that left much of the family’s property, the copyrights to her son’s works, and the Burgazada house to Darüşşafaka Society. The bequest stipulated that the Burgazada house be used as the Sait Faik Abasıyanık Museum. It also called for a short-story award in Sait Faik’s name.

The museum opened to the public on August 22, 1959. Darüşşafaka Society assumed responsibility for it from 1964, the same year the Society began administering the Sait Faik Story Award under the terms of the Abasıyanık bequest.

What Is Preserved in the Museum

The museum’s holdings focus directly on Sait Faik rather than presenting a general survey of Turkish literature. The collection includes objects that belonged to him or formed part of his surroundings, together with photographs, letters, postcards, and documents that record different parts of his personal and literary life.

Because these materials remain in the Burgazada house associated with the writer, visitors encounter documentary evidence and personal objects within a place that was itself part of his biography. This distinguishes the museum from an exhibition built solely around later acquisitions or reproduced material.

The museum also preserves the connection between Sait Faik’s literary legacy and Darüşşafaka. The transfer of the house, copyrights, and other property was not an unrelated institutional acquisition; it grew from Sait Faik’s own interest in Darüşşafaka and the provisions later formalized by his mother.

Restoration and Reopening

Darüşşafaka Society closed the museum in 2009 for structural strengthening, restoration, and conservation work. The project addressed both the historic house and the preservation needs of the material kept inside it.

The restored museum reopened on May 11, 2013. The reopening retained the building’s role as a house museum while renewing the way Sait Faik’s belongings and documentary material were presented and protected.

Visiting the Museum

Sait Faik Abasıyanık Museum is located at Çayır Sokak No: 15 on Burgazada, in Istanbul’s Adalar district. The museum’s official schedule lists visiting hours from 10:30 to 16:45, Wednesday through Sunday.

Admission is free. Visitors arriving as a group of 10 people or more must make an appointment in advance. The museum can be contacted by telephone at +90 216 381 2060 or by email at info-saitfaikmuzesi@darussafaka.org. Current notices and visiting information are published on the official Sait Faik Abasıyanık Museum website.