Bakşı Museum

The Bakşı Museum was founded by the artist Hüsamettin Koçan in his home village on a ridge above the Çoruh valley, and its premise is deliberately contrary: a serious contemporary art museum built not in Istanbul or Ankara but in a rural district of Bayburt, one of the smallest provinces in Turkey, with the intention of connecting modern art to the traditional crafts and communities around it. The building is stone and glass on the edge of the ridge, with galleries showing contemporary Turkish work alongside a collection of local material culture - textiles, tools, ethnographic pieces - and workshops where village women weave and produce on site. It won the Council of Europe Museum Prize in 2014, the first Turkish museum to do so. The setting is a large part of it: the ridge falls away to the Çoruh and the view runs over bare highland. Getting there needs a car and some intent, which is presumably the point.

Highlights

• The ridge building - stone and glass over the Çoruh valley.
• The contemporary galleries - modern Turkish art in a village.
• The ethnographic collection - local textiles and tools.
• The workshops - village women weaving and producing on site.

When to go

June to September; the mountain road is difficult in winter and the museum's hours are reduced. Check opening before making the drive.

What to expect

It is 45 km from Bayburt up a mountain road with no public transport - a car is essential. Opening hours are limited and seasonal. Bayburt itself has modest facilities.

Nearby

Bayburt's castle is 45 km away; the Çoruh valley runs north toward Artvin.

Key facts