Do not forget to grab an English audio guide to understand the context fully. Hint: The ticket printed in the closing pages of Orhan Pamuk's novel “The Museum of Innocence” would grant you free access to the museum.

You can reach the museum with an easy stroll from Taksim Square or Tophane. The Museum of Innocence is in the historical neighborhood of Çukurcuma, which also attracts visitors with its antique shops and art galleries. Orhan Pamuk rightly says that one does not need to read the novel to understand the museum, as the exhibits actually aim to document life in Istanbul from the 1950s up to the 2000s with pictures, objects and ephemera meticulously collected by the writer himself. All these imaginary objects are at display today in the Museum of Innocence, organized in a chronological way corresponding to the chapters of the novel. Kemal starts collecting the objects belonging to Füsun, including her dresses, her driver’s license, and even 4213 cigarettes she smoked and disposed of.

Pamuk’s novel follows the story of Kemal in the 1960s and 1970s, focusing on his obsessive love for a young woman called Füsun.

What's the novel 'The Museum of Innocence' is about? This is Orhan Pamuk’s greatest achievement. While the Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk was writing his novel “The Museum of Innocence” (Masumiyet Müzesi), he started collecting several objects as a source of inspiration for his creative process. A stirring exploration of the nature of romantic attachment and of the mysterious allure of collecting, The Museum of Innocence also plumbs the depths of an Istanbul half Western and half traditionalits emergent modernity, its vast cultural history. Nestled in an old three-story wooden house in Çukurcuma dating to 1897, the Museum of Innocence might be the first museum ever dedicated to a novel.

Pamuk museum of innocence