The restoration of the famed İshak Paşa Palace in Eastern Turkey has been completed and the palace is now waiting for visitors.

[rick murphy]

Ishak Pasha was a Serb (possibly a Croatian or a Greek according to
some historians) and an 15th Century Ottoman general, statesman and
later Grand Vizier. He died in 1497 in Thessaloniki, Greece. As Baron
Wenceslas Wradislaw, an ambassador to Ottoman Constantinople, observed
and documented “Never did I hear it said of any pasha, or observe
either in Constantinople or in the whole land of Ottoman, that any
pasha was a national born Turk; on the contrary, kidnapped, or
captured, or turned Ottoman... The strength of the empire rested
neither on the Muslim majority nor obviously on the millets, but on
the hierarchy of the Kapi Kullari, commonly known as the “Slave” or
the “Ruling Institution”.


http://www.todayszaman.com/news-315217-restoration-of-ishak-pasa-palace-complete-waiting-for-visitors.html

Restoration of İshak Paşa Palace complete, waiting for visitors


Picture: İshak Paşa Palace (Photo: AA)

12 May 2013 /OSMAN YAKUT, AĞRI

The restoration of the famed İshak Paşa Palace in Eastern Turkey has
been completed and the palace is now waiting for visitors.

The İshak Paşa Palace is situated high on a hill five kilometers from
Doğubayazıt, a town in the province of Ağrı. The restoration and
landscape project that was launched for the semi-ruined palace in
November 2010 has been finished. The destroyed walls of the palace
were reconstructed, the stone dressings were all repaired and
watersheds were built around the palace to protect it from rain and
snow.

Speaking with Today's Zaman, Van Relief and Monuments Provincial
Director Cemil Karabayram said TL 10 million was spent on the
restoration project. He indicated that the most necessary work done
for the project was drying 180 years of moisture collected in the
palace. “In order to be able to accomplish this, we removed the roof
made of copper,” he said, “and we set up a special glass system which
takes the heat in and exudes moisture.”

Construction of the palace started in 1685 by Çolak Abdi Paşa, the
ruler of Doğubayazıt at the time, and was completed by his grandson
İshak Paşa in 1784.

The palace, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, took 99 years to
complete. It is known for having the first central heating system in
history. It attracts many domestic and international travelers and
carries major importance in reviving tourism in the region. The
structure consists of 116 rooms, a mosque, court halls, a harem
quarter and a shrine.

There are many things to enjoy inside the palace, although the two
most striking rooms are the glorious mosque, with a built-in minbar
(pulpit), off the second courtyard and the splendid pillared dining
room beyond the third one. Look out, too, for an octagonal hamam
(Turkish bath), bedrooms with sizeable fireplaces (for protection
against the harsh winters of Eastern Turkey) and some unexpected
wooden corbels -- that must once have supported a balcony -- which are
curiously reminiscent of the gargoyle drains on the cathedrals of
Western Europe.