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Historic Church in Smyrna to Become Press Museum

A press museum will be housed in a restored outbuilding located in the garden of the Ayavukla Church, on the West side of Smyrna. The press museum is said to be the third largest in Turkey after the press museums in Constantinople and Bursa. The restorations began a while back under the direction of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality and the supervision of İzmir Institute of Technology.

İzmir Metropolitan Municipality officials told Anatolia News Agency that the figure of Christ, as well as frescoes depicting St. John and angels Michael and Gabriel were restored, and the building is now in a condition that will allow it to host social and cultural events organized by the municipality.

Moreover, İzmir Journalists Association Executive Board Chairman Atilla Sertel said: “There will be private objects of some journalists in the museum such as copies of the first newspapers, cameras used in the past, typewriters, telexes and printing machines.It will be a very different museum”.

The Greek Orthodox Ayavukla Church was built in the second half of the 19th century in the Basmane area. It was the only Greek Orthodox church to survive the fire of 1922, a major event in İzmir’s history. Two years later, the building served as the Asar-I Atika Museum under orders from Turkish republican founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.The museum was later abandoned. It was registered as a “cultural item under preservation” and allocated to the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality by General Directorate of National Estate.

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