The Swissôtel Büyük Efes (formerly known as Büyük Efes Hotel) is a hotel located near

Cumhuriyet Square ''Cumhuriyet'' (; English: "Republic") is the oldest up-market Turkish daily newspaper. It has been described as "the most important independent public interest newspaper in contemporary Turkey". The newspaper was awarded the ''Freedom of Press ...

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. It is part of the

Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts, commonly known as Swissôtel, is a Swiss chain of luxury hotels owned by Accor, which acquired FRHI Hotels & Resorts in 2015. The corporate offices for Swissôtel are located in the Prioria Business Centre on the pro ...

chain.

History

The initial design of the hotel was prepared by architect

Paul Bonatz Paul Bonatz (6 December 1877 – 20 December 1956) was a German architect, member of the Stuttgart School and professor at the technical university in that city during part of World War II, and from 1954 until his death. He worked in many styl ...

in 1950, but was soon discontinued due to the architect's health problems. The project was soon reassigned to and completed by Turkish architect Fatih Uran. The hotel opened officially in 1964. The hotel was originally owned by The Pension Fund ( Emekli Sandığı). In 2003 a new architectural project for the hotel was prepared by HAS Architecture and

NBBJ NBBJ is an American global architecture, planning and design firm with offices in Boston, Columbus, London, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Pune, San Francisco, Seattle and Shanghai. NBBJ provides services in architecture, interiors, planning ...

(a global American architecture firm). In May 2008, the hotel reopened as Swissôtel Büyük Efes. The hotel is located near

, which was constructed after the

great fire of Smyrna The burning of Smyrna (, "Smyrna Catastrophe"; , "1922 İzmir Fire"; , ''Zmyuṙnio Mets Hrdeh'') destroyed much of the port city of Smyrna (modern İzmir, Turkey) in September 1922. Eyewitness reports state that the fire began on 13 September 1 ...

in 1922. The famous Atatürk Monument is situated in the square.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 38, 25, 41, N, 27, 8, 9, E, type:landmark_region:TR, display=title Hotels in İzmir Buildings and structures completed in 1964 Hotels established in 1964 Modernist architecture in Turkey Turkish companies established in 1964 Hotel buildings completed in 1964