Kayna Soap and Molasses Museum

Kayna Soap and Pekmez Museum, located in Tışlaki Neighborhood of Şahinbey District in Gaziantep, is a thematic museum established to preserve the city’s traditional industrial heritage and the culture of soap and pekmez production. The complex was created through the restoration of a historic building with a history of approximately 400 years, known locally as Pekmezci Hanı, and opened to the public in August 2024.

The museum building is an original Ottoman-era structure that once belonged to the Pekmezci family and was used historically for both lodging and production (soap and pekmez workshops). This building, mentioned in the travel notes of the famous explorer Evliya Çelebi among Gaziantep’s significant caravanserais, holds an important place in the city’s commercial and production memory. Over time falling into ruin, the structure was donated by its owner family and, following a 1.5-year-long faithful restoration carried out by the Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality, was revitalized and reopened as a museum.

^{Kayna Soap and Pekmez Museum} (Anadolu Ajansı)

The museum introduces visitors to olive and grape, two fundamental products of the Mesopotamian region, in accordance with the principle of “From Field to Table”, using ethnographic objects and interactive digital presentations.

The soap section of the museum details the process from olive harvesting to olive oil production and its subsequent transformation into soap. Here, traditional equipment used in soap-making—such as large cauldrons, ovens, soap-cutting boards, graters, and mallets—have been preserved and displayed, many of which were sourced from historic soap workshops.

In the pekmez section, the process is illustrated from grape harvesting during the vine pruning season, through pressing into must, to boiling in large cauldrons until it becomes pekmez. The collection’s standout features include historic large cauldrons and wooden pekmez-stirring paddles.

The museum’s inventory consists of ethnographic objects donated from settlements in Gaziantep and its surroundings, which were used in daily life during past eras.

The institution includes practical workshops dedicated to studying traditional production techniques. In these areas, the processes of soap and pekmez production are categorized and presented according to their technical stages. The traditional production culture is transmitted through hands-on methods within these units.

The museum is situated along the Gaziantep Castle and Historical Culture Route, alongside the Udma Cheese Museum and Rayiha Spice Museum within the same tourism axis. As a component of the gastronomy-focused thematic museum network, the building functions as a data center for documenting local production techniques and preserving industrial heritage.