Guide
The Pelit chocolate museum opened in 2014 and is presented as the first of its kind in Turkey. It began as the private work of Selahattin Ayan, whose pieces grew into a project and then into a museum, and its staff say that what separates it from chocolate museums elsewhere is its subject: most of those explain where chocolate comes from and how it is made, while here the chocolate is the material of the art.
Hundreds of works are made from chocolate produced on the premises, by several techniques. Some are carved — a block is cast and then worked down into a figure; others are moulded, the subject first modelled in another material such as clay and a mould taken from it before the chocolate is poured; and there is mosaic work, made with chocolate pieces produced to look like pebbles. The rooms are kept a little below room temperature to hold all this together.
Visitors are given a piece of chocolate at the door and then work through themed rooms: an İstanbul room of the city's landmarks, a Çanakkale room with Atatürk and the symbols of that campaign, a hall of busts of famous artists, a hall of civilisations holding versions of world-famous works, a Jerusalem hall, an Ottoman hall and a children's hall. School groups are given a guide, and the staff make a point of saying that children who are lukewarm about museums tend to leave this one better disposed to them.
