A historical mansion that was commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II during the Tsarist Russia period in the Sarıkamış district of Turkey's eastern Kars province will serve as a hotel after being restored in accordance with its original form.
Constructed in 1896 after Kars and Sarıkamış fell under Russian occupation as a consequence of the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878, the Catherine’s Mansion served as a mansion to the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II for hunting tours. This summer residence of the Russian tsar and his family was also a healing place where the Tsar's sick son Aleksi was rehabilitated.
The mansion was built in the style of Baltic architecture without using nails from yellow pine trees unique to Sarıkamış. The 28-room construction consists of two separate buildings as a hunting lodge and a main mansion.
While the building has not been restored for many years, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism made a tender for the allocation of it to investors for a period of 49 years on the condition of restoration on July 30, 2021. Turgut Torunoğulları, Chairperson of the Board of ORKA Hotels, who won the tender for the restoration of the historical building and converting it into a hotel, started work on the restoration of the mansion.
Informing about the restoration works for the mansion, Torunoğulları said: “There is a small and a big building here. While the small one will be a restaurant, the other will be a large mansion will be a hotel with private rooms. The mansion has a name but it is very worn out. We will find the way this mansion was built through its old photographs. When the mansion is restored, it will be faithful to its original."
The historical mansion is located four kilometers (about 2.5 miles) from the Cıbıltepe Ski Center and one kilometer from the Sarıkamış district center.
