Ankara Palas Hotel

Ankara Palas Hotel

This was once the Military Hotel, with the famous coffee shop on the ground floor. Located right next to Government House and Yellow Barracks made it somewhat of a military quarters. This coffee shop was the prime pastime location for Izmir intelligentsia in early 20th century.

In the 1930s, Ankara Palas Hotel replaced Military Hotel and the coffee shop. New hotel carried on the military coffee shop tradition with 'Ankara Palas Patisserie'. This new bakery also hosted most famous authors, journalists, and politicians, witnessing intellectual life and the art scene of the city. Celal Bayar (third prime minister and third president of Turkey) and Adnan Menderes (ninth prime minister of Turkey) worked here during establishment studies of Democrat Party (one of the earliest political parties to be established in multi-party democracy in Turkey). When the Democrat Party won the elections in 1950, the bus stop in front of Ankara Palas was renamed as May 14th Stop.

Run by Nafiz and Kemal Bey in the 1930s, Ankara alas was one of the few luxury hotels in the city in republic era. Featuring 19 rooms, a single room price in this hotel was 2 Liras in 1934, while a double bed room would cost 5 Liras. Hotel provided facilities like hot water and telephone. 'Konak' and 'Mitat' taxi ranks would serve hotel guests.

Ankara Palas Hotel was expanded in 1936 to reach 99 bed capacity. Until its closure in the 1990s, it was always listed among first class hotels.

Today, you can see the remaining parts of the building: two-storey corner building towards Milli Kutuphane (National Library) Street, and modern style extension part towards Konak Square.