Organized and led by Stefano Ionescu, this five-day carpet study tour 11-15 June 2026 to Central Anatolia is designed for collectors and serious enthusiasts who want to understand Anatolian carpets in their original cultural and architectural settings. The route runs from Ankara to Konya and combines museum collections, historic sites, and active centres of carpet production and restoration. Throughout the tour, carpets appear as part of a living historical landscape, not as isolated objects.
The journey begins in Ankara with a focused visit to the Vakiflar Museum, where participants study Anatolian rugs and kilims with former director Dr. Suzan Bayractaroglu and carpet scholar Dr. Levent Boz. The visit highlights vakıf collections and their role in preserving historic carpets. At the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, archaeological material reveals visual links between ancient motifs and later carpet designs.
From Ankara, the group travels to Aksaray, using the journey to discuss the relationship between architecture and Ottoman carpets. The Aksaray Museum presents a compact but important group of central Anatolian prayer rugs, originally preserved in the Great Mosque and rarely encountered outside their local context.
The route continues through Selime in Cappadocia, where the monumental rock-cut cathedral shows how architecture, landscape, and belief systems shape visual traditions. Visits to specialist galleries of 19th-century Central Anatolian rugs connect historical material with later weaving practices.
In Sultanhani, widely regarded as a centre of carpet restoration, participants visit a major workshop and follow every stage of traditional carpet production and repair. A visit to the monumental Sultan Han Caravanserai, the largest Seljuk caravanserai in Anatolia, places carpets within the framework of medieval trade routes. A private dinner in the caravanserai, accompanied by a Whirling Dervishes ceremony, concludes the day.
The tour ends in Konya with visits to key Seljuk monuments, the Ethnography Museum and its early Anatolian and Ottoman carpets, and the Mevlana Museum, offering a broader cultural and spiritual context. The programme concludes in Konya, with the option of extending the stay.
Further practical details, the full itinerary, and conditions of participation are available in the attached PDF Carpet Study Tour to Central Anatolia.
Contact & enquiries
Stefano Ionescu, email: stefano_ionescu@yahoo.it
Links to former articles: Anatolian rugs at Ankara Vakif Museum, Silk Road Carpet and Kilim Exhibition at Sultan Han Caravanserai 2024, Historical carpets at Konya Ethnography Museum