City Museum

Bursa has a state-of-the-art City Museum, housed in what was once the old courthouse at Heykel. Ground-floor exhibits whip through the history of the city, with information on the sultans most closely associated with it. Unfortunately, the labelling is in Turkish only, apart from the section headings. Luckily the cultural and ethnographical collections upstairs need little explanation.

Down in the basement there are reconstructions of old shops which are wonderful, with films showing old-fashioned artisans at work. Newspaper clippings also show a couple of local characters to look out for: Deli Ayten, the banjo-playing bag lady, and 'Tarzan Ali', a 59-year-old former action hero.