Guide
Hacı Ahmet Efendi of the Tartanzade family had this house built in Karaman in 1810, and it is a fine example of Anatolian Turkish domestic architecture: two storeys on a central-hall plan. The decoration is not so much carved woodwork as painted work, and the best of it is overhead.
On the octagonal ceiling of the first-floor hall are painted the Sultanahmet Mosque, Dolmabahçe Palace, the Maiden's Tower, the tomb of Mahmud II, a paddle steamer and a sailing ship — subjects that belong to the westernising years. The house did not only shelter the Tartan family: for years it took in travellers passing between cities. It stands on Tartan Sokak in the Tapucak quarter, in the centre of Karaman.
