Bolstered by an international urban honor and the recent opening of an ambitious, visually imposing modern art museum, the spotlight has turned on Eskisehir, a small Central Anatolian city that has slowly but surely become one of the most livable and likable in the country.

Late last year, Eskisehir, whose name means the old city, was chosen as one of the five finalists for the WRI Ross Prize For Cities thanks to a sweeping urban transformation effort led by Mayor Yilmaz Buyukersen, a former professor and administrator who has been in office for 20 years.

Last month, the Odunpazari Modern Museum opened its doors with great fanfare in the city's historic quarter of Odunpazari, a significant addition of cultural wealth that the owners hope will have a similar effect on Eskisehir as the opening of the Guggenheim Museum had on the Basque city of Bilbao. Designed by Japanese architecture firm Kengo Kuma & Associates, the complex combines geometric wizardry with bold, severe beams of timber that form the basis of its structure.

Odunpazari, with its array of restored, brightly painted Ottoman-era homes, in recent years has become popular with locals and tourists from around Turkey. A wax museum — named after Buyukersen — is wildly popular and often has lines out the door and around the block, and there are many cafes and souvenir shops; the Odunpazari Modern Museum endows the tourist area with some intellectual clout.