For Free

Atatürk Orman Çiftliği: Gazi's farm

The model farm Atatürk founded on bare steppe in 1925 — a replica of his Salonica house, the old brewery, and now a huge new nature park on the same land.

Free-ishhalf a daya weekend morning; the museums close on religious holidays

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Why do it?

In May 1925 Atatürk bought a stretch of marsh and steppe west of the new capital and set out to prove the land could be farmed. AOÇ — Gazi Orman Çiftliği — became a model farm, a factory complex and Ankara's first public leisure ground in one: dairy, winery, and from 1937 a brewery designed by Ernst Egli, with a Bira Parkı beside it where families drank the farm's own beer under the trees, Atatürk among them. Much of the land has since been carved up — the road, the stadium, the presidential complex — but what remains is a rare open space in the west of the city: the Atatürk Evi, a replica of his birthplace in Salonica; a museum and exhibition hall; a picnic park with old plane trees; and, since September 2025, the metropolitan municipality's Atatürk Çocukları nature park and zoo on 940,000 square metres of the farm's former zoo land.

The Smileys Take

Come on a weekend morning for a slow walk under the trees, the Atatürk house (small, quiet, worth twenty minutes), and a picnic — it is the farm's original purpose and the city still uses it that way. The new nature park is the reason to bring anyone with children. The beer garden is the sad part: the brewery closed decades ago, and as of this writing the farm's own site lists no beer park or bar among its visitable places, so treat the 'beer garden' as history rather than a plan — ⚠ VERIFY whether any restaurant on the farm still serves the old Ankara beer before you promise a group a pint under Gazi's trees. Bring your own picnic; that part is certain.

Don't miss

Atatürk Evi — the replica of the Salonica house, with original furnishings.
The AOÇ museum and exhibition hall — the farm's story, and the early republic's.
The 1930s brewery buildings from outside — Egli's modernist ensemble.
The Atatürk Çocukları nature park and zoo, opened 6 September 2025.
The plant sales greenhouse — Ankara's balcony gardens start here.