Isparta: Carpet Art, City History and Andık-Deresi

Textile art, city history and a walk by the waterfall

Isparta offers various reasons to explore the city and its traditions: carpets and kilims take centre stage at the Prof. Dr. Turan Yazgan Ethnography Museum, while the mosque, bedesten and traditional houses offer further insights into the city’s history. If you would rather spend time outdoors, the historic recreation area at Andık-Deresi-Bezirgan Waterfall has pools, picnic areas and a landscaped walking path. You can therefore decide how to balance cultural discoveries with an outing to the recreation area during your stay.

Carpets, kilims and everyday objects

The Prof. Dr. Turan Yazgan Ethnography Museum opened in 2013 and is an ethnographic carpet and kilim museum. A total of 3,100 carpets and kilims are on display. They are joined by approximately 2,300 objects, including traditional clothing, old household and agricultural tools, a Yörük tent, looms and distillation flasks used to make rose oil. The varied objects offer several perspectives on textile traditions and everyday life: alongside woven works, clothing, tools and rose oil production are presented as distinct topics.

The building itself is also remarkable: it is ten storeys tall and covers approximately 3,000 square metres. From its observation tower, all of Isparta can be viewed with the naked eye and through a telescope. For families looking to accommodate different interests, the collection areas offer a range of topics—from carpets and clothing to tools and looms.

Museum and historic buildings

The Isparta Museum offers a different arrangement. It is divided into four main sections: Archaeology, Treasury, Ethnography and Carpets. At the end of 2008, its collection comprised 17,976 objects in total, including 2,953 archaeological objects, 2,352 ethnographic objects and 12,671 coins. These figures refer to the collection as it stood at the time; they convey the range of the sections mentioned, from archaeological finds to coins and ethnographic objects.

The Isparta Ulu Camii, also known as Kutlu Bey Camii, is one of the oldest mosques in Isparta city centre. Its name comes from the Ottoman commander Kutlu Bey. Another historic building is the Firdevs Bey Bedesten in Kutlubey Mahallesi. Firdevs Bey, the governor of Isparta at the time, had it built in 1561 to generate revenue for the Mimar Sinan Mosque. The bedesten reflects Mimar Sinan’s architectural style.

Traditional Isparta houses can be found in the central city neighbourhoods of Kepeci, Çelebiler, Gazi Kemal, Keçeci, Sermet, Kurtuluş, Doğancı, Dere, Emre, Karaağaç and Yayla. If you are interested in the city’s architectural history, you can keep these neighbourhoods in mind as further places to explore. The houses add a perspective on traditional forms of residence to those offered by the museum and historic buildings.

Walking path and recreation area

The historic recreation area at Andık-Deresi-Bezirgan Waterfall brings together several features: a waterfall, landscaped pools and picnic areas. A walking path is decorated with the Köşe Göbek carpet pattern, and there is also night-time and coloured lighting. Both the path’s design and the water and picnic areas shape the character of the site. If you would like to make time outdoors during your stay as well as exploring the museum and city history, this recreation area offers another way to shape your trip.

Choose a location for your accommodation

When looking for a holiday rental or holiday home in Isparta, it helps to start by asking which experiences matter most to you on your trip: the carpet and kilim collections, the varied holdings of the Isparta Museum, historic buildings or the walking path by the waterfall. If travelling with children, you can also consider which collection areas or experiences best suit the interests of everyone in your group.

Discover more destinations

The pages for Kasımlar, Eğirdir, Çobanisa, Sütçüler and Keçiborlu also offer further destinations to help you plan.

For the main travel overview: Isparta.