Eskişehir consistently tops Turkey’s quality-of-life surveys, and it’s easy to see why. Two major universities have shaped a progressive, arts-driven city where Ottoman timber mansions sit alongside contemporary galleries, and canal-side bars stay busy well into the night.
Unlike most Turkish cities, Eskişehir actively rewards slow, exploratory walking rather than monument-ticking. Its highlights are neighbourhoods and atmospheres rather than single sites.
- Region
- Northwest Anatolia
- Elevation
- 789 m
- Known for
- Student life, Ottoman district
- Best months
- Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct
Odunpazarı — the Ottoman quarter
Odunpazarı (the Old Wood Market) is Eskişehir’s defining historic district: a hilly neighbourhood of beautifully restored 18th- and 19th-century timber-frame Ottoman houses, their overhanging upper floors painted in shades of terracotta, ochre and cream.
Today the houses hold art galleries, ceramic workshops, cafés and the striking Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM), whose angular timber architecture by Kengo Kuma is itself a contemporary landmark. Contemporary Turkish artists’ work fills the galleries.
Porsuk Canal and the waterfront
The Porsuk Stream runs through the heart of the city, its banks lined with colourful buildings, café terraces and a parkland promenade. Gondola and boat rides operate in summer — a deliberate echo of Venice that locals embrace entirely without irony.
The canal district is most beautiful at dusk when café lights reflect on the water and the evening promenade brings half the city outside.
Glass art and meerschaum
Eskişehir has two artisan traditions unique to the region. The city is one of Turkey’s main centres for glass painting, and workshops throughout Odunpazarı offer courses. Meerschaum (lületaşı) — the white mineral used to carve ornate pipes — is mined in the region and sold in shops near the bazaar.
Eskişehir in pictures
Frequently asked questions
Eskişehir
2Eskişehir is famous for its Odunpazarı Ottoman district, the Porsuk Canal, lively student culture, glass art and meerschaum craftsmanship.
Yes — it is consistently rated Turkey's most liveable and progressive city and has a genuinely different character from Istanbul or Ankara.