Hasköy, located on the Beyoğlu side of the Golden Horn, was for centuries a small, predominantly Jewish, village. In the Ottoman period it also became home to a naval shipyard and a sultan’s hunting ground. Today its main claim to fame is this splendid museum dedicated to the history of transport, industry and communications in Turkey. Founded by the head of the Koç industrial group, one of Turkey’s most prominent conglomerates, it exhibits artefacts from İstanbul’s industrial past.
The museum's collection is highly eclectic, giving the impression of being a grab-bag of cool stuff collected over the decades or donated to the museum by individuals, organisations or companies who didn’t know what else to do with it. This might sound like we’re damning the place with faint praise, but this is far from the case – in fact, we highly recommend a visit here, particularly if you are travelling with children. The museum is in two parts: a new building on the Golden Horn side of the road and a restored and converted Byzantine stone building opposite. The exhibits concerned with forms of transport are particularly fascinating: you can sit in a classic car; take a cruise on a restored 1936 steam tug (summer weekends only); enter the cabin of a Douglas DC-3 Dakota; board a 1944 US naval submarine; or take a short trip on a working narrow-gauge railway (summer weekends only).
Excellent interpretive panels in Turkish and English are provided. There's also a restaurant right on the waterfront.
