Abstract
The focus of this paper is the Ottoman site at Büyükçekmece Lake in Thrace, incorporated today in the outskirts of Istanbul. The Ottoman site analyzed as case-study was designed in the second half of the 16th Century by the master-builder Sinan for the Sultan Suleiman and Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmet Pasha. The Büyükçekmece complex, a post station on the road, included a monumental stone bridge, a caravanserai, a small mosque and a fountain, and for centuries was an important center along the Imperial road connecting the capital with the West. As a result of uncontrolled expansion of the outskirts of Istanbul, starting in the 50s and 60s of the 20th Century, the site has been radically compromised, with the complete transformation of the rural landscape that was surrounding the complex, transforming it into an industrial area interspersed with residential zones. A recent project consisting of tourist-sports center and an entertainment park done by the Great Municipality of Istanbul in order to revitalize the area and attract more visitors, had compromised the historical buildings and the original site, making impossible to read the traces of the Ottoman past in that region. The impact on the historical buildings has been completely ignored and the redevelopment process did not take into account the cultural values of the architectural elements, their legacy and their relation with the landscape. This paper describes how regenerating the Ottoman heritage in Büyükçekmece, had compromised the whole site, giving no more possibilities to read the landscape that once characterized the area.
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Notes
- 1.
There is a vast literature on the works of Sinan, but specifically concerning the territorial scale, the landscape and the routes to the Balkans it is possible to find many update references in Orlandi [1].
- 2.
The inhabited center of Büyükçekmece, called Athyras in ancient times, is located on the eastern shore of the homonymous lake, at the point of confluence with the Marmara Sea, and constitutes an autonomous municipality that lies within the administrative boundaries of the extreme western suburbs of the Great Istanbul Municipality.
- 3.
About the fundamental studies conducted by Maurice Cerasi in the past years on the Ottoman towns [2].
- 4.
- 5.
In 1566, the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent died during a military campaign against the Austrian Empire while he was besieging the city of Szigetvár in Hungary, not being able to see the work completed. But the buildings at Büyükçekmece were carried out by his son and heir Selim II, who maintained Sinan as the site architect, under the supervision of Sokollu Mehmet Pasha, the new Grand Vizier of the Empire, appointed by Suleiman just one year before his death.
- 6.
The marble arch above the entrance to the prayer hall is left intact and an Ottoman inscription carved on its surface is still readable: «Kelime-i tevhid» (The real Word).
- 7.
In the central panel, from which water spurts, an inscription, dated 1566, celebrate the Sultan and its endowment: “This fountain was built by the sultan Suleiman khan victorious in 974 H. bring new fresh water to the world”.
- 8.
All the information about the restoration process and the project done by the Municipality of Büyükçekmece is presented in their website: retrieved from: http://www.bcekmece.bel.tr/en-us/Buyukcekmece/Ilcemizde-Yasam/TarihiYerler/Pages/Büyükçekmece-Menzil-Külliyesi.aspx
- 9.
This subject was already presented in a wide range in other publications done by the author [6].
References
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Orlandi L (2015) In search of an “Ottoman Landscape”: Sinan’s works in thrace as expression of tangible heritage. A/Z ITU J Fac Architect 12(2)
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Orlandi, L. (2019). The Ottoman Landscape of Büyükçekmece. A Case of Oversight or Misinterpretation of the Past?. In: Amoruso, G., Salerno, R. (eds) Cultural Landscape in Practice. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering , vol 26. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11422-0_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11422-0_20
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