Guide
The Museum of the Princes' Islands stands on Büyükada in the Adalar district of İstanbul. It opened on 10 September 2010 with the support of the İstanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency and is known as the first contemporary city museum in İstanbul. Founded through a collaboration between the Adalar Foundation and the municipality of Adalar, it lies in the Aya Nikola area in the south of Büyükada, the oldest historical settlement on the island; its main building, holding the permanent displays, is a former helicopter hangar renewed and brought back into use.
The museum presents the story of the Princes' Islands from their geological formation to the present, drawing on thousands of Ottoman archive documents, photographs, hundreds of documentary films, video clips recording the islands as they are now, documents from the archives of the public institutions serving the islands, oral history recordings, and a collection made up of gifts from islanders.
In presenting the multicultural history and the values of the islands, the museum sets out to protect the communal life enriched by their historical, cultural and natural heritage, and to raise interest in them.
