Kapalıçarşı Taramalar Bölüm III
NESLİHAN KÜÇÜKASLAN
begum ercevik
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aysen ciravoglu
Fighting Entropy to Salvage Istanbul Grand Bazaar
14-04-2011
By SUSANNE GÜSTEN
ISTANBUL — When the rain began again in Istanbul this month, Osman Varli, a carpet seller in the city’s Grand Bazaar, cast an anxious glance to the vaulted ceilings outside his shop. “I’m really getting worried here,” he said, pointing to the moldy and decaying columns supporting the graceful vaults. When it rains, water streams down the pillars from the leaking roof and runs down the lane like a river through a ravine. “Those pillars won’t last much longer,” Mr. Varli said, poking at one of the columns with a disdainful finger. “Look, just scratch with your fingernail and it dissolves.”
A view from Kalpakcilar Street inside the Grand Bazaar. Built in 1461, it remains a center of commerce, but it needs structural repairs.
Hasan Firat, president of the bazaar traders’ association, agrees that the leaking roof is the most urgent problem the historic bazaar faces in this, its 550th year. But there are plenty more.
“So many things are old and outdated here,” Mr. Firat said during an interview this month in his office overlooking the bazaar’s roof, which bristles with weeds and air-conditioning units. “From the roof to the foundations, from the electric system to environmental hazards, this place urgently needs an overhaul.”
Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, built by the Ottoman sultan Mehmet the Conqueror in 1461, is visited by about 300,000 people most days, and half a million on busy ones. Approximately 25,000 people make their living in the bazaar, which boasts 3,600 shops selling items from Armenian antiques to tourist trinkets. It has its own post office, mosque and police and fire stations under its 39,000-square-meter, or 420,000-square-foot, roof.
Yet when it comes to maintenance and repairs, there is no one in charge of this city within a city.
“Yes, it is a world-famous cultural treasure,” said Mustafa Demir, the mayor of Istanbul’s Fatih district, which encompasses the historical peninsula on which the bazaar sits, “but it is also the private property of many individuals, and there is no organizational structure for solving common problems.”
“This huge bazaar was forsaken, abandoned to its fate,” he said.
Ownership of the Grand Bazaar is divided among some 2,500 shop owners, a majority of whom have held their deeds for generations, some dating to Ottoman times. Although most are members of the bazaar traders’ association, “we have no legal authority to raise money or award contracts,” said Mr. Firat, whose grandfather started as a bazaar porter in 1907.
As a result, traders have been left to improvise, with hazardous results that are perhaps most visible in the garlands of electrical cables festooning the walls of the bazaar.
“The market’s current power grid was installed in 1980, before we had high-voltage spotlights in the shop windows and refrigerators in the cafes and air-conditioners,” Mr. Firat said. “The bazaar is wired for 500 watt, but we are using 5,000.”
Traders have tried to bridge the gap by running cables in from outside the market. “There are wires everywhere,” Mr. Demir, the mayor, acknowledged. “But there is still not enough power.”
Inside the labyrinthine passageways of the bazaar, a couple of German tourists looked up to a rats nest of live wires dangling over a display of carpets.
“Those rugs would catch fire quickly,” one of the tourists, Ingrid Schütz, said. “And it would be difficult to get people out of here in an emergency.”
Fires have plagued the bazaar time and again over the centuries. The last major conflagration, attributed to an electrical problem, occurred in 1954. It burned for 28 days and destroyed more than 1,300 shops. The bazaar remained closed for repairs for six years, reopening in 1960 in its present-day state.
A fire broke out on the outskirts of the bazaar in February, but was quickly contained. An electrical malfunction was the suspected cause of the blaze in market stalls along an outside wall of the bazaar, according to the Ihlas news agency.
Still, the German couple said they would not let safety concerns spoil their enjoyment of the colorful market. Other western visitors seemed similarly unconcerned.
“We cannot worry about quakes all the time,” said Anders Thomassen, a Norwegian consultant in town to sell earthquake relief equipment to the Turkish authorities.
But Mr. Varli, the carpet seller who has been watching the rotting pillars outside his shop since 1994, does worry about a quake. “Yes, I am afraid,” he said. “This place is not stable at all.”
In fact, the bazaar’s structure has been compromised by the traders themselves, according to Mr. Demir, the mayor. Over the years, hundreds of merchants have torn out supporting walls to enlarge their shops, or dug down into the foundations to add a basement to their store.
“We know this has caused problems for the bazaar’s statics,” Mr. Demir said, adding that the structure also lacks any kind of building plans. “If the bazaar collapsed, we would have no blueprint to rebuild it,” he said.
The local authorities are now working to fix that, the mayor explained. Since 2009, when the historical peninsula of Istanbul was redistricted to Fatih, a survey has been underway to document the bazaar’s structure, take stock of problems and develop a restoration plan that is due next year.
That is the easy part. The hard part is finding the money for the restoration, an estimated $100 million.
“It is the largest historical restoration project in Turkey,” Mr. Demir said. “We just don’t have that kind of money.”
While his district and the province of Istanbul are paying for the survey, at a cost of about $10 million dollars, “we cannot possibly use public funds to restore the bazaar,” the mayor added. “The shop owners must do it.”
To make this happen, his administration has proposed a law that would give the bazaar a modern governing structure, including an executive board that would have the authority to raise money from tradesmen and award building contracts.
The draft bill has reached committee level in the Turkish Parliament and is expected to be passed this year, Mr. Demir said. “We will hand the restoration plan to the board and say: ‘Here, it is your project, not ours.”’
In the crowded lanes of the bazaar, merchants did not seem put off by the prospect of paying an estimated average of $30,000 to save the market.
“It is worth it to me,” Emin Sari, a carpet merchant, said.
“This has to be done, or the roof will cave in on us,” added Samet Uzun, who sells brightly colored scarves.
Mr. Varli, the carpet seller, said he hoped work would start soon. “It’s very late already,” he said with a skeptical glance up at the mildewed ceiling. “Time is running out.”
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The oldest and largest covered bazaar in the world is situated in the heart of the city. One cannot appreciate this market without visiting it. It resembles a giant labyrinth with approximately sixty lanes and more than three thousand shops.
The bazaar consisted originally of two 15th century buildings with thick walls that were covered with a series of domes. In later centuries the streets around these buildings developed and were covered and new additions were made, turning it into a trading center. In the past each lane was reserved for a different profession and the handicrafts produced here were rigorously controlled.
Business ethics and traditions were strictly adhered to.
Kapalıçarşı is a great bazaar in Nuri Osmaniye and Beyazid Mosques and Mahmutpaşa Bazaar, made up of streets of various shops sheltered by roofs and domes. Though not very regularly shaped, it holds and area of about 31 thousand square meters. It has hundreds of domes which are covered with lead and windows. The nucleus of Kapalıçarşı is a Byzantine building which is today called Old Bedesten. The section of the bazaar where valuables and jewellery are bought and sold was commissioned by Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror and the main great bazaar itself was commissioned during Kanuni Sultan Suleyman, on a wooden basis. Kapalıçarşı, today has a surface of 30.7 hectares, 61 streets, 10 wells, 4 fountains, 2 mosques and over 3 thousand shops, managed to claim its present look within 250 years. Kapalıçarşı, which burned in years of 1546, 1618, 1652, 1660, 1695, 1701, 1750 has always been repaired after each disaster. After all this, it had undergone great damage in the earthquake of 1766. It is partially burned in fires of 1791 and 1826. The bazaar which had just regain is composure was again shaken by an earthquake in 1894 this time. It catches fire again in 1954 at the latest and could only be repaired in five years. The major sections of Kapalıçarşı are :
Inner Bedesten : It was the first building to rise in Kapalıçarşı, actually it is Old Bedesten which forms the backbone of the bazaar. The gates’ names are as follows : Bouquinistes, Hat Shops, Jewellery Shops and Costume Shops.
Sandal Bedesten : It is the one with most number of domes in Kapalıçarşı. At present it can be accessed through two gates, one is through Kapalıçarşı and the other is through Nuruosmaniye district.
Other Sections : The architectural design of roads making up other sections apart from two bedestens is not symmetrical and geometrical, it has a scattered nature due to reflect its formation and the catastrophes it has gone through. In this way, it stays away from the closed bazaar style of the West and has a character of an Eastern bazaar. This laid back settlement; this scattered nature prevents the bazaar from being dull and at the same time gives it a romantic flavor. Such a complicated structure and settlement not only maintains the monumental state of the bazaar, but also makes it a palace for shopping.
Hans : Four adjacent sides of Kapalıçarşı is surrounded by hans which are separate units by themselves. Today the hans which are directly connected to the bazaar, that is, which can be accessed through the bazaar and not through an outside entrance are : Astarcı Han, Büyük and Küçük Safran Hans, Evliya Han, Sarraf Han, Mercan Ağa Han, Zincirli Han, Varakçı Han, Rabia Han, Jewellers’ Hani Yarım Taş Han.
T he Grand Bazaar (Kapalicarsi in Turkish) is one of the the largest covered markets in the world with its 4400 shops, 3000 firms, some 17 hans (separate inns for specific type of products), 64 streets,25.000 employees, 4 fountains, 2 mosques and 22 gates. It's a real heaven for shoppers and a good opportunity for people to discover the Turkish hospitality.
GrandBazaar
It looks like a labyrinth at first sight but it's actually not that complicated. All you have to do is to keep your eyes on the main street (Kalpakcilarbasi Street, the jewelry street). The Bazaar was first constructed in 1464 with the order of Mehmed II 'the Conqueror' and had many restorations over the years due to the extensive fires and destructive earthquakes. There are tens of cafés, a police station, little mosques, in the bazaar tourists information points .
There are thousands of things you can find and purchase in the Grand Bazaar. The gate that one usually enters into the bazaar is called "Nuruosmaniye Gate" that means "the light of the Ottomans". That takes you directly to a shining street full of jewelry stores. Jewelry is one of the things could be purchased. Gold prices are not low but due to the lower workmanship costs, you may find a huge variety of gold, precious stones and semi precious stones like sapphire, ruby or emeralds at reasonable prices. Bargaining is always possible. Before you purchase, it's recommended to ask more than 3-4 shops so that you can get the best price. The main street goes all the way up till the other exit and it's all full of jewelry stores....
A nother item which is important to our culture is carpets . When you're walking on the streets in the Bazaar, some people might approach you and invite you to see their collections of carpets. They are commission-men and if you like them you can go to the shops they mention but you may also reject them. They seem insistent but if you don't care about them, they go away. Carpet shops are usually spread out to smaller parallel streets and the purchasing decision is usually very hard. When you walk into a carpet shop, you're first offered coffee, tea or coke without any obligation of buying usually with a warm smile. The carpets are from several different regions of Turkey and the salesman tells about them one by one starting from less quality ones to higher quality (higher price of course!) ones. Bartering with them is a real fun!
O ther than those of higher value items, there are good leather shops in the Bazaar. Leather could be found in a han on the left hand side of the main street called "Leather Goods Section". There are also good ceramic items, wall plates and good tile plates. You may also find silverware, copperware, fake brand t-shirts like Tommy Hilfiger as well as good Istanbul or Turkey t-shirts all around the bazaar. There are also belly-dancers costumes and traditional folkloric costumes. As you walk into deeper sides of the bazaar, you may explore heavens of religious icons, antique or used watches or old pages of calligraphies. One cheaper thing is the amber stone. You may find beautiful amber-stone work in the bazaar.
grandbazar
it's a real fun to stroll around the bazaar and explore small and humble shops which offers you lots of beautiful souvenir items for your pleasure.
All types of jewelry, fabrics, weaponry and antiques were sold by merchants whose expertise in the trade went back for generations. At the end of the last century the bazaar suffered an earthquake and several fires.
Although it was repaired according to its original plan, it lost its former characteristics and deteriorated.
In the old days the tradesmen commanded so much respect and trust that people asked them to safeguard and to invest their money. Today the shops in many lanes have changed character. Trades such as quilt makers, slipper makers and fez makers only remain as street names now.
The so-called main street of the bazaar is lined with jewelry shops, and a side lane opening to this street is allocated to goldsmiths. Prices vary and bargaining is customary in these rather small shops.
Although the bazaar retains its former charm and allure, since the 1970's the modern and large enterprises near the main entrance offer better shopping opportunities for the tourist groups visiting Istanbul.
The covered bazaar is crowded and bustling the whole day. Shop owners insistently invite the visitors to their shops. In the large and comfortable shops at the entrance one can find examples of all the hand-made articles produced in Turkey. The handmade carpets and jewelry sold here are the finest examples of traditional Turkish art. Every item on sale carries its tag of authen-ticity and it can be shipped to anywhere in the world.
Along with the carpets and jewelry, these shops offer a wide collection of high-quality Turkish silverware, copper and bronze souvenirs and decorative objects, ceramics, and onyx and leather goods.
The Spice Bazaar is another covered market place on a smaller scale. A small 15th century covered bazaar in Galata is still in use.