The Nevşehir Culture Route Festival is still going on with its exhibitions, which combine traditional Anatolian weaving, Islamic calligraphy, Ottoman sacred relics and contemporary installations, and workshops and cultural programmes that attract visitors throughout the city.
The festival, which is organised by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Türkiye, will feature concerts, exhibitions, talks, workshops, a children’s zone with culinary venues and activities, and will take place until Aug. 9 over the weekend.
The traditional crafts are the memories of the region that are carried forward.
The Urgup Factory Campus of Cappadocia University allows tourists to visit Seljuk and modern-age traditional carpets and see how traditional Islamic calligraphy is used in the making of the hats.
Carpet lovers are introduced to Anatolia’s long traditions of carpet making in the exhibition and workshops by ministry-recognised bearer of intangible cultural heritage Fatma Turgut.
Turgut said that the carpets made in Nevşehir were naturally coloured by root dyes, and it is observed that red, green and brown colour tones are dominant in many of them.
“It’s our responsibility to pass them on to the future,” she said.
A modern perspective on Ottoman relics
The “Ottoman Sacred Relics” exhibition is organised at the Guray Museum in Avanos with the aim of collecting some sacred items of the Ottoman era.
This location will also be the host of an exhibition titled “The Decrepit Structures of a Dystopian Universe”, which will tell the story of humanity in the form of mini universes.
Visitor Murat Saltik stated that with his family, he had been to a number of places that hold events, and he specifically wanted to see the sacred relics exhibition. Saltik said he had previously performed Umrah, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that is performed outside the annual Hajj, and had a great impression of seeing a covering of the Kaaba.
Another visitor, Yagiz Ilkturk, shared that he learned about it through a few exhibitions and was influenced in particular by the part of the exhibition dealing with sacred relics. The festival will keep the doors open for visitors in Nevsehir until Aug
