Adam Mickiewicz Museum

Poland’s greatest Romantic poet, Adam Mickiewicz was among the founders of a pro-Polish-independence student group and very active in the struggle for Polish independence. He was imprisoned in Vilnius and later exiled to central Russia where he spent five years. It is from this point that he started living out the rest of his life abroad. After living in several cities in Europe, he moved to Istanbul to organize Polish forces to fight Russia in the Crimean War. He settled in a three-storied house on Tatlı Badem Street in the Tarlabaşı neighbourhood. The Polish freedom poet spent the last days of his life in this house and died in 1855. In 1955, a hundred years after his death, the building was opened to serve as a museum dedicated to him. The museum houses documents and information on the life and work of Mickiewicz; photographs from his years in Istanbul as well as documents and photographs from the Battle for Freedom in Poland. There is a symbolic grave in the basement of the house although his remains were transferred to France and later to Poland. This museum is definitely worth visiting for people with an interest in Polish or general European history and literature.