Beyond Anitkabir: The Funerary Architecture of Atatürk

There have been five different settings that at one time or another have contained the dead body of Mustafa Kemal AtatÃ1/4rk organizer of the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923) and first president of the Republic of Turkey. Narrating the story of these different architectural constructions - the bedroom in Dolmabahçe Palace Istanbul where he died; a temporary catafalque in this same palace; his funeral stage in Turkey's new capital Ankara; a temporary tomb in the Ankara Ethnographic Museum; and his permanent and monumental mausoleum in Ankara known in Turkish as 'Anitkabir' (Memorial Tomb) - this book also describes and interprets the movement of AtatÃ1/4rk's body through the cities of Istanbul and Ankara and also the nation of Turkey to reach these destinations. It examines how each one of these locations - accidental designed temporary permanent - has contributed in its own way to the construction of a Turkish national memory about AtatÃ1/4rk. Lastly the two permanent constructions - the Dolmabahçe Palace bedroom and Anitkabir - have changed in many ways since their first appearance in order to maintain this national memory. These changes are exposed to reveal a dynamic rather than dull impression of funerary architecture.