Sogut Ertugrul Gazi Museum in Bilecik, Turkey

Söğüt Ertuğrul Gazi Museum is primarily an ethnography museum focused on Söğüt, Bilecik, and surrounding communities. Despite the Ertuğrul Gazi name, its displays are not arranged as a biographical museum devoted only to Ertuğrul Gazi. The collection instead preserves clothing, textiles, household objects, weapons, measuring equipment, and other material associated with local life, including objects connected with Yörük communities.

What Is Displayed in the Museum?

A large part of the collection consists of ethnographic material from Söğüt and the wider Bilecik area. Traditional clothing and accessories appear alongside handwoven carpets, kilims and saddlebags. The displays also include weighing instruments, weapons and objects once used in everyday domestic and working life.

Other recorded objects include sancaks, embroidered or woven towels, and coin purses. Together, these items document practical crafts, clothing traditions and household culture rather than concentrating only on political or military history.

The museum also holds a smaller archaeological component. This includes coins from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods and pottery dating to the Roman period. These objects broaden the chronological range of the collection beyond its main ethnographic emphasis.

How the Söğüt Museum Collection Developed

The museum institution in Söğüt predates its present building. Söğüt Museum first opened on September 12, 1981 in a building opposite the Ertuğrul Gazi Tomb that is now used as the Halime Hatun Mescidi.

Objects for the early collection were gathered from Söğüt, Bilecik and nearby villages before the museum opened. Material entered the collection through donations, purchases and archaeological work carried out by the museum administration. This local collecting history explains why everyday regional objects form such a large part of the displays.

The Present Museum Building

The exact original construction date of the present building is not established in the detailed museum history published by the Directorate General of Cultural Assets and Museums. That account places its construction in the early 20th century and attributes it to Söğüt mayor Memiş Ağa. It was built as a Sargı Evi, a term associated here with a medical or dispensary function, and was later used as a Tekel building.

The structure was known for its wooden workmanship. Its architectural features included paired round-arched entrances on the front, tall rectangular windows on the side walls, triangular forms above the windows, a hipped wooden roof and traditional roof tiles.

The building was registered as an example of civil architecture in 1978. After becoming unsafe, it was vacated during the 1980s. A fire on August 27, 1990 destroyed the building.

Reconstruction took place between 1995 and 2001 using surviving documentation, measured drawings, photographs and remains of the foundations. The three-story building was recreated in accordance with the restoration project, with the upper floor arranged as a single exhibition hall. It opened for museum use on September 8, 2001.

Ertuğrul Gazi Museum and Ertuğrul Gazi Tomb Are Separate Sites

The museum should not be confused with the Ertuğrul Gazi Tomb, which is another historic site in Söğüt. The museum’s name reflects its location and local historical setting, but visitors entering the museum mainly encounter ethnographic material from Söğüt and Bilecik rather than a collection devoted exclusively to Ertuğrul Gazi.

This distinction is useful when planning a visit: the museum is best understood as a local ethnography museum whose collection records clothing, weaving, tools, domestic objects and other evidence of life in and around Söğüt, with a smaller group of archaeological objects extending the story into earlier periods.