Giresun’s most colorful building attracts the attention of onlookers

Located on Gazi Street, one of the busiest streets in Giresun, the building with colorful balconies covered with flowers attracts the attention of passersby, standing like a piece of art among concrete blocks. Starting about 10 years ago on Gazi Street, the building, except for its windows, is covered with colorful flowers, resembling an ethnography museum inside. The owner of the building and the operator of the cafe inside, Fikret Gürsoy, who expresses that the inside of the building is a reflection of its inner world, said, ‘After the building became my property, my wife and I decided to operate it as a cafe after thinking about what to do for a while. From 2013 until now, we have been meticulously decorating the building. I don’t even know how we achieved this. We didn’t have such a plan, but every year we multiplied the flowers and climbing roses and added more. After 10 years, it has come to this. Maybe it has turned into a building that reflects our inner world. There is over 10 years of effort in every centimeter of this colorful building.’ The exterior is like a flower garden, the interior is like an ethnography museum. Inviting those who only see the outside of the building to see the inside as well, Gürsoy said, ‘People only see the outside of our colorful building. However, we also tried to add a beauty worth seeing inside. On each floor of the building we operate as a cafe, we gathered items used in homes in past years to create a museum atmosphere with our own means. Along with this, we also tried to host birds in our space. In the birdhouses we made, every morning the birds sing, giving our customers a feeling of being in nature. Now, we also planted a butterfly tree and hope it will attract butterflies soon.’ Gürsoy, who aims to create awareness in the city by inspiring people to decorate their balconies, also mentioned, ‘I have never taken a photo of our building. I have always seen people taking pictures and sharing them. We are very pleased that our flower-adorned building among concrete buildings attracts attention, but we don’t want people to just take photos, we also invite them to come and have a tea with us. They should come, get to know us, have a tea or coffee, and they will see that there are memories to be made inside our building. If we were able to create awareness in our city, we are happy. We are always ready to help those who want to decorate their balconies. We will help them multiply the roses and flowers they want. Just knowing that our roses and flowers are blooming on someone’s balcony will make us happy.’