Beyond the Obvious

The Yılmaz Büyükerşen Wax Museum

Two hundred wax figures, most of them sculpted by the city's own long-serving mayor — gloriously odd and very Eskişehir.

₺1 hourany afternoon except Monday

Not yet checked by the Smileys team — prices and hours may have moved.

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Why do it?

Yılmaz Büyükerşen was Eskişehir's metropolitan mayor for twenty-five years, from 1999 to 2024, and he is also a sculptor — he made wax figures of Atatürk long before he made a museum of them. The wax museum he founded opened on Atatürk Bulvarı in Odunpazarı on 19 May 2013, billed as Turkey's first, and is run by the metropolitan municipality: around two hundred figures in five themed halls, from Atatürk and the War of Independence to Turkish politicians, writers, actors, singers and Eskişehir's sports heroes, and Hollywood stars, most of them modelled by Büyükerşen himself. Ticket income goes to education for girls and for children with disabilities. It was busy as ever over the 2026 Ramadan holiday.

The Smileys Take

Go in the right mood — this is not Madame Tussauds, it's one man's very personal gallery of the people who mattered to him and to the republic, and that's what makes it charming. Spend most of your time in the Atatürk and Turkish halls; the domestic figures are the ones that make Turkish friends laugh and argue, which is the real fun of going with a group. An hour is plenty. It closes on Mondays, and hours and prices are worth checking before you go. Combine it with OMM and the old town on the same walk.