05 September 2007

DOLMABAHÇE PALACE

Four hundred years ago the area where Dolmabahçe Palace stands today was the biggest bay on Bosporus where the Ottoman Captain Pashas anchored their ships. This bay where the traditional naval ceremonies are celebrated became a marshland by the time. From the 17th century the bay was gradually filled in and became an “imperial park” arranged for the recreation and amusement times of the Ottoman Sultans. In this garden, a complex composed of a series of imperial mansions and pavilions that were built in different terms was known as Beşiktaş Coastal Palace for a long time. Towards the second half of the 18th century, there had been an occidental impression in the Turkish architecture and a decoration style called “Turkish Rococo” had appeared in mansions, pavilions and public fountains that were built under the influence of European style.

06 September 2007

BASILICA CISTERN (YEREBATAN PALACE)

It is the biggest and magnificent closed cistern in Istanbul. Its entrance is from the small building on the west of the Saint Sophia square. The cross-vaulted ceiling of the palace that looks like a column forest is made of bricks. The palace has taken its name from a nearby basilica. It was built in times of Justinianus the First (527-565) in order to supply water to neighborhood palaces. Cistern takes place in an area of 9800 square meter and its length is 143 m, and wideness is 65 m. Totally there are 336 columns (28 x 12) and most of capitals of the columns are either in Corinthian and Ionic style. However there are also few amounts of capitals that were left undecorated in Doric style. The cistern is surrounded by a fired-brick wall of 4 m thickness and plastered with a special type of plaster for water isolation.

SULTANAHMED MOSQUE (BLUE MOSQUE)

This is a mosque that was commissioned by Sultan Ahmed the First and constructed by the architect Sedefkar Mehmed Aga on the peninsula in Istanbul between 1609 and 1616. It was called as “Blue Mosque” by the Europeans as it was decorated with blue, green and white colored İznik tiles. It became the main mosque of Istanbul after the Saint Sophia’s transformation into museum. The decoration with İznik tiles is the most important and remarkable architectural and artistic aspect of the monument. Yellow and blue colored traditional floral patterns are applied for the decoration of these tiles and this style renders the monument a work of art beyond a place of worship. Sultanahmed has been the first mosque in Turkey with six minarets.

According to a myth, Ahmed the First, Sultan of the term, at the beginning demanded from the architecture of the mosque, Sedefkar Mehmed Aga, to build the minarets in gold. Unfortunately, as the value of the gold that would be used for covering of the minarets highly surpassed the budget of Sultan, Sedefkar Mehmed Aga behaved as if he understood this order as six instead of gold. (In Turkish “Altın” means “Gold” and “Altı” means “six”) and finally he constructed the mosque with six minarets.

The dimension of the place of worship of the mosque is 64 x 72 m. The central dome of which the diameter is 23,5 m is 43 m height. The inner side of the mosque is illuminated by 260 windows. The calligraphy of the mosque was made by Seyyid Kasım Gubari from Diyarbakır. Together with the monuments adjacent to the mosque it composes a complex.