Aziz Sancar’s childhood home opens as a museum in Savur
Aziz Sancar’s childhood home in Savur, in Turkey’s Mardin province, has opened as a museum. Three rooms on the first floor display his medical instruments, photographs and scientific materials. Restoration preserved the historic house’s architectural details, while the remaining floors are planned for reading rooms and a science centre intended to bring children into contact with science.
Arts··Midday
Sancar returns to the house where he grew up
Nobel laureate Aziz Sancar’s childhood home has opened as a museum in Savur, in Turkey’s southeastern Mardin province. Sancar attended the ceremony with his family, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy and Mardin Governor Tuncay Akkoyun.[1], [2]
The museum opened on 21 October inside a historic stone house. Ersoy said the building dated from before 1938. Its courtyard, stone walls and rooms retain features of Savur’s traditional homes. The first floor of the four-storey masonry building provides 395 square metres of museum space.[1]
Restoration preserves the stonework and interiors
Ersoy said restoration involved structural strengthening, plasterwork, stone cleaning, joint repairs, concrete flooring and insulation. Work also covered waterspouts, chimneys, stone mouldings, motifs and inscriptions to preserve the original architecture. Interior rooms were arranged according to their period functions. Three exhibition rooms now hold photographs, medical instruments, diplomas, academic robes, gifts and awards alongside files from Sancar’s scientific work.[1]
Other floors are planned for children and readers
Mardin’s governor’s office plans reading rooms and a science centre for the basement and remaining floors. Those spaces belong to the wider project beyond the museum floor already open. Sancar welcomed the preservation of the house’s original character. He said he wanted children to encounter science there and intended to discuss further support with TÜBİTAK, Turkey’s scientific and technological research council.[1]
