Hamidiye Battery and Çanakkale Wars History Museum

About

The Hamidiye Battery and Çanakkale Wars History Museum occupies an area of about 104,600 square metres in Barbaros Mahallesi, in the Merkez district of Çanakkale. Besides the museum, the grounds include a culture park and a Miniature Gelibolu section, and the complex opened to visitors on 9 October 2018. The battery was built for Asaf Pasha in the 1890s, during the reign of Abdülhamid II, to secure the strait. It consists of 9 gun platforms arranged in a semicircle with 10 ammunition bunkers (bonets) between them. Because the command headquarters was located here, bunkers 3 and 8 are wider and have two storeys. Inside the bunkers, the First World War and the Gallipoli Campaign are told in chronological sequence through reconstructions, interactive displays and graphics. The exhibition also covers the war's impact on daily and economic life, soldiers' letters and their equipment. Items on show include an original war medal, Mustafa Kemal's attack order issued at Kanlısırt and his personal belongings, and a model of the Gülcemal steamer that carried the wounded to Istanbul.