Cemil Pasha Mansion
Cemil Pasha Mansion is a historical mansion located in Sur district of Diyarbakir. Today, it is used as a city museum as a result of restoration.
It was built between 1888-1902 by Cemil Pasha, the governor of Yemen and later the governor of Siirt. The mansion, built on two thousand square meters, is one of the architectural structures built as a residence in the 17th century. It consists of a harem and a selamlik and has a large courtyard. The northern side of the harem section was used for winter and the south side was used for summer; The eastern and western parts were also used seasonally. In the Selamlık part, there are stables, servants' rooms, reception rooms, coffee rooms, a crypt, an elliptical pool with a rectangular frame. In the construction of the mansion, which has two entrances, cut basalt stone and the material called "cis" were used in order to bring mobility to the structure.
Cemil Pasha and his family lived in the mansion until 1927. Later, the primary school was transformed into an area for silkworm breeding and weaving. The mansion, which was abandoned after the 1970s, was started in 1998 by the Cekul Foundation upon the request of the Cemil Pasha family, but it could not be concluded. Between 2010 and 2012, Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality and Diyarbakır Special Provincial Administration decided to agree with the heirs of the mansion and turn it into a city museum, and in 2013 the survey, restitution and restoration process was completed. After three years of restoration work, the mansion was opened as a history and culture museum in 2014 and the restoration cost approximately 5.5 million liras.
