Adam Mickiewicz Museum, Istanbul

Adam Mickiewicz, a poet, playwright, patriot, and the author of Poland’s national epic, is regarded as one of the most important representatives of Romanticism in Polish literature. In many respects, he is often compared to George Gordon Byron and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, two of the most renowned European writers of the first half of the 19th century.

On 11 September 1855, Mickiewicz set out on his final journey to the Ottoman Empire with the aim of organizing a Polish legion to fight against Russia during the Crimean War. He passed away on 26 November 1855 in a rented house in Istanbul, which today serves as the Adam Mickiewicz Museum.

On 8 November 1855, Adam Mickiewicz, together with Armand Lévy and Henryk Służalski, rented a small house from a woman named Rudnicka, located at the intersection of Yeni Şehir Street and Kalyoncu Kulluk Street. In March 1870, a major fire that broke out in Istanbul devastated almost the entire Pera (Beyoğlu) district, including the house where Mickiewicz spent his final weeks and died.

Later that same year, the property was purchased from the Istanbul Municipality by the Polish aristocrat Józef Ratynski, who reconstructed the house as an exact replica of the original building. Today, the Adam Mickiewicz Museum is located at the corner of Tatlı Badem Street and Serdar Ömerpaşa Avenue.

In 1955, on the 100th anniversary of the poet’s death, the house was converted into a museum in cooperation with the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art. The museum displays documents and information related to Mickiewicz’s life and works, photographs from the years he spent in Istanbul, as well as artifacts, documents, and photographs associated with the Polish struggle for independence. In the basement of the building, there is a symbolic tomb dedicated to Mickiewicz, whose actual grave is located in Kraków.