The Museum of Innocence

First, it was a literary creation – now, it’s a real thing. Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk called his 2008 bestseller The Musuem of Innocence after the museum/obsessive shrine kept by his main character in the novel. In 2012, Pamuk unveiled the museum itself – likely the only museum in the world based on one that was created first in literature and perhaps the most interesting and accessible social history museum Istanbul has ever had. As in the novel, here you’ll find here everyday objects, collected from neighbourhood junk shops, which tell stories of a bygone era, tapping into the heart of the city itself. It is an extraordinary art installation and, as its name suggests, it is a museum about innocence, about loss, melancholy and mourning; it speaks volumes about Turkey’s transition into modernity that is critically relevant today.

The Museum of Innocence
Çukurcuma Caddesi, Dalgıç Çıkmazı, 2, 34425, Beyoğlu
+90 212 252 97 38