Guide
Giresun Museum, also known as the Gogora Church, stands in the Zeytinlik quarter of Giresun and is in origin a basilica built in the eighteenth century.
The church was built in the middle of that century by the Greek Orthodox community of Giresun. Abandoned in 1923, the basilica served as a prison between 1948 and 1967 and was redesigned as a museum in 1988. In 1999 an exhibition was held here on Topal Osman and his companions, figures of the Turkish War of Independence.
It is built of rectangular yellow and brown limestone blocks joined with iron cramps and lead. The main door faces west. To the north stands another building, formerly the clergy house, which serves as the administrative block.
Most of the works held here belong to the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman periods: terracotta figurines, pottery, amphorae and coins among them. The oldest object is dated to 3000 BC, and there are also finds from the excavations at Erik harbour. The ethnographic section holds Ottoman material of the nineteenth century — clothing, kitchen implements, bath objects, weapons and ornaments.
