Yaşayan Köy Anadolu Açık Hava Müzesi

About Yaşayan Köy Anadolu Açık Hava Müzesi

Yaşayan Köy (the Living Village), formally the Anatolian Open-Air Museum, is a hands-on open-air museum in the Macun area outside Beypazarı. It was founded by the folklorist Dr Sema Demir, who also created the Yaşayan Müze and the Turkish Bath Museum in Beypazarı town, and opened in 2016 as what its founders describe as the first applied open-air museum in Türkiye. The museum's aim is to preserve and interpret traditional Anatolian buildings that are fast disappearing, together with the culture that grew up around them. Its buildings are drawn from different regions of Türkiye and from architecture of the 17th to 20th centuries. Houses on the site include a mud-brick (kerpiç) house, presented as Anatolia's oldest house type; a 17th-century Ankara house representing Central Anatolia; the Mediterranean "düğmeli ev"; and a Black Sea house of the "göz dolma" type. Public buildings such as a laundry house, a grape-molasses (pekmez) workshop and a neighbourhood bakery stand alongside a small bazaar where traditional crafts are practised and shown. There are also exhibitions on Turkish carpets, dowry traditions and kitchen culture, and the museum runs themed activities such as "preparing for winter in Anatolia", "sourdough village bread" and "a day in the village", as well as a block-printing (yazma) workshop. Overnight stays are offered in guest houses built from traditional materials such as stone, timber, mud brick and fired brick. Yaşayan Köy lies in Macun, outside the town centre, so plan it as a separate stop from Beypazarı's old-town museums.