İznik Museumvisitor guide.

Built in 1388 as a soup kitchen (imaret) in memory of Nilüfer Hatun, mother of Sultan Murad I, the monument stands among the finest masterpieces of 14th-century Ottoman architecture. It represents the first imaret in Ottoman architecture designed with an inverted 'T' plan. Constructed in alternate masonry of three courses of brick and one course of cut stone, it displays rich and polychrome brick-and-stone craftsmanship. The building opens with a porch supported by columns and piers carrying domes and vaults. An inscribed portal leads into the main hall, roofed by a central dome surmounted by an illumination lantern. Domed side chambers open from the main hall. Nilüfer Hatun Imaret was utilized as a storage depot for various municipal needs during the Republican period, was restored in 1960, and opened to visitors as a museum that same year. The museum displays prehistoric to Ottoman finds collected around İznik, alongside excavation finds from Ilıpınar, the Roman Theater, and İznik Tile Kilns. Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman stone antiquities are exhibited in the courtyard garden, including capitals, sarcophagi, reliefs, ambos, stelae, inscriptions, gargoyles, and Islamic gravestones. NEARBY MUSEUMS BURSA OTTOMAN HOUSE MUSEUM BURSA TURKISH AND ISLAMIC ARTS MUSEUM BURSA ARCHAEOLOGY MUSEUM MUDANYA ARMISTICE HOUSE MUSEUM YENİŞEHİR ŞEMAKİ HOUSE MUSEUM