Reflections of 1904'S Erzurum to Current Erzurum

ITU A|Z • Vol 13 No 2 • July 2016 • 157-173 Reflections of 1904’s Erzurum to current Erzurum Ömer ATABEYOĞLU [email protected] • Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Agriculture, Ordu University, Ordu, Turkey Received: April 2015 • Final Acceptance: January 2016 Abstract Human activities and natural influences contribute to the heritage of a city through their richness. The relationship of a city’s historical processes and their contemporary reflections may only be assessed with the data and documents in- herited from its past periods. Erzurum City has a rich and bright historical past. Erzurum as one of the most crucial cities of the past has brought a glorious heritage from past to present. The oldest original map that serves as a source of information on the structure of the city is the one drawn by Fuat Bey in 1904 that is kept in Erzurum museum. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between the present status of Erzurum and its past through information obtained from the 1904 city plan of Erzurum. The study was initiated with a survey of the literature on the history and urban culture of Erzurum City and the evaluation of data collected from the 1904 map. Afterwards, the data provided on Fuat Bey’s Map is compared with today’s data of Erzurum. The coordinates have been taken, and the buildings and structures mentioned on the map which have survived until today have been photographed. Furthermore, their present situations, their usage and their functions in urban structure of Erzurum have been revealed. In the results section, all of the existing structures mentioned on the historical map have been processed on the map of the current city. Thus, the city’s historical change, its protection and its destruction, additionally their impacts on the development of the city is shown. Keywords doi: 10.5505/itujfa.2016.41713 10.5505/itujfa.2016.41713 doi: Erzurum, Historical city, The Fuat Bey’s Map, Historical map, Urban plan. 158 1. Introduction such as accommodation and commer- Cities as centers of information and cial buildings. The city also served as a culture are living organisms that ren- military base, due to its strategic loca- ovate themselves. They collect and tion and hosted military and defense take notes of experiences by cultural plants. Throughout history many pil- heritage throughout history (Karatepe grims’/travelers’ paths passed directly 1999). The cultural heritage serves as or indirectly through Erzurum being a bridge that makes contact between both a major commercial and adminis- today and past. The cities take shape trative center that connected West and thorough their cultural heritage. The East, Europe and Asia. Those pilgrims/ cultural heritage could be easily de- travelers expressed their views about stroyed if not well utilized. The cultural the nature, important buildings and heritage which has survived until the the city’s structure from their trips to present is a structural part of historical Erzurum. urban texture. All of cultural, econom- In their travels between 13th and ic and social factors generate historical 19th centuries A.C. pilgrims including urban texture (Kökten, 1996; Deve- Marco Polo, Tavarni and Pushkin men- lioğlu, 1991; Turgut, 2010). Turkey tioned that Erzurum under the Ilkha- with its rich history has hosted many nians’ administration was a great and civilizations all of which have affected beautiful city with mostly gardened the function and aesthetics of its cities. houses spread over a wide area with While some cities preserve their char- 3 rivers crossing it and lush creeks. acteristic, others experience deeper According to the sayings of pilgrims/ changes through time. Erzurum bears travelers; the city was surrounded with the traces of civilizations which it has double walls extending to more than 6 hosted. Many characteristics of its her- km in length and with a castle having itage have reached today, but some of 62 towers. There were 24 pieces of can- these have been lost to time and mod- non balls around the castle. The hous- ernization (Atabeyoğlu et al. 2009 and es constructed were adobe, wood and 2012). stone and the roofs were covered with Erzurum has hosted many civiliza- grass. There were many caravanserais tions; it has seen empires, states, and in the city. There are sixteen baths and clans. The foundation of Erzurum about a hundred religious buildings dates back to 1400s B.C., and Hurrians, in addition to many aqueducts and a Urartu, Medes, Persians, Macedonians, vast number of fountains in the city. A Seleucids, Parthians, Romans, Byzan- crucially important trade route passes tines, the Sassanid Empire, Armenians, through Erzurum connecting Europe Umayyads, Abbasids, Seljuks, the Sal- and East Asia. According to the famous tukids, Anatolian Seljuks, the Ilhans Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi’ notes Clan, the Sutays Clan, the Cobans in 1641-1642; the city was on a grassy Clan, Eratnians, Tamerlane, the Ak- and flowery plain, surrounded by hun- koyunlu, the Karakoyunlu, the Safavids dreds of prosperous villages, the hous- and lastly the Ottomans have reigned es were covered by soil and were in the (Yılmaz, 2011). In the 7th century, its form of old Turkish houses, and the city population increased to 200 thousand, had many palaces, mansions, mosques, and became one of the biggest cities of inns, baths, fountains, schools, shops, the world. In addition, the city served the bazaar, jewelers, and silk manufac- as the capital of the Saltuklu (Anon., turers. However, many of the travelers 2011). that came to Erzurum after the Russian Having hosted many civilizations, war mentioned that the city was heavi- the city became a center in commer- ly destroyed (Kılıç, 1998). cial and strategic sense. Therefore it From the first day of its establishment has been very well constructed by at- till the 19th century, the city remained tracting special interest and support inside its three rows, and preserved the of statesmen in each period. Due to pattern of its old plan which was shaped its intense commercial activity in the like a flat circle. The center of this circle past, the city attracted attention with a is still standing as a rectangular shaped large number of its structural elements citadel on a hill (Figure 1). According ITU A|Z • Vol 13 No 2 • July 2016 • Ö. Atabeyoğlu 159 ture can be derived from the ancient photographs taken, and from the travel books of that period. In addition, Fuat Bey’s 1904 Erzurum city map’s layout and texture has an utmost importance to evaluate, and compare the past and current texture and order of the city. 2. Material The materials of this study are Er- zurum city itself, and the map drawn at 1/25.000 scale, by a Caucasian ori- gin Staff Captain Fuat Bey dated 1904 Figure 1. Portrayal of Erzurum drawn by Josep Tournefort in original of which is located at Erzurum 1716 (Tournefort, 2005; Kılıç 1998). Archaeological Museum. The map also has the characteristic of being the first city plan prepared for Erzurum (Figure 3). In this study, the surviving buildings listed on the historical map were taken into consideration. Later, by label- ling, and positioning these structures on present-day Erzurum city map, it is aimed at highlighting the historical city center’s contribution to the development, and structure of today’s city; also the importance, and impact of old historic infrastructure to the structure of the modern city. Furthermore, it is targeted to document the forgotten and disappearing culture and history in the Figure 2. Physical development duration of Erzurum City Centure structure of the modern city even by (Turgut et al. 2009). the population living in Erzurum. In to Beygu (1936) many of the walls were addition to providing the data, and dismantled in 1853. There had been conditions of those years provided by slight changes in the city’s old cultural the1904 map, the main underlying physiognomy due to partly applied zon- idea of this study is the responsibility ing plan by Mr. Lambert in 1939 (Tan- of transferring today’s information to rıverdi,1973). The urban structure has the future generations. developed around the same core. The Located at an altitude of 1869 m., growing urban structure area and popu- Erzurum city borders Kars and Ağrı in lation have used their historical heritage the East, Muş and Bingöl in the South, (Figure 2). Erzincan and Bayburt in the West and The people living in Erzurum until Rize and Artvin in the North. The city the Republican era, 1923 were staying is the fourth largest city in Turkey in at earth-roofed buildings which were terms of land area. The city has a pop- made out of black stones, with carved ulation of 763.320 people. Population corner stones, and double-deckers. The of the map area is 235.537 people (TSI, streets were very narrow and intricate 2015). It has an important strategic po- having large courtyards (Tanrıverdi, sition since it is a crucial transit route 1973). to Caucasian Republics, and to Iran. The surviving historical elements, The city is rich on account of monu- urban texture of Erzurum provide in- ments from ancient civilizations (Yıl- formation about its glorious past. The maz, 2011; EMM, 1996). city still hosts many historical elements such as baths, inns, mosques, civil ar- 2.1. Fuat Bey’s map chitecture samples, fountains, and cu- The Map is prepared in 1/25000 polas. Information on the urban tex- scale and shows the urban settlement Reflections of 1904’s Erzurum to current Erzurum 160 Figure 3. 1904s Erzurum City Map (Elginöz 2007). of 1904 by Caucasian Staff Captain Fuat given but there is no information con- Bey.

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