Historical development and conservation issues of Davud Pasha complex buildings and their vicinity

In the years following the conquest of Istanbul, the statesmen constructed buildings in various regions in order to populate the city so that new settlements developed around these buildings. Davud Pasha, who served as a grand vizier in the reign of Bayezid II for about 15 years (1483-1497), contributed to the development of the region, which is known as the 7th hill of the Historical Peninsula, by building his large complex. This complex consists of a mosque, a madrasah, a primary school, a public kitchen (imaret) and also two double baths, a commercial inn, and more than 100 cells and shops. In the contribution of the newly conquered city's building stock performed by Davud Pasha and other contemporary grand viziers, and also Sultan II. Bayezid's support for zoning activities can not be denied. Although not endowed by Davud Pasha; the courthouse, pier, high school and mill structures in the vicinity are also named after the grand vizier. In this dissertation; the construction and restoration processes of these structures were studied and current conservation problems were identified. The study is not limited to the structures only; it also analyses the urban and socio-cultural development of the area of about 1 km2 where the buildings are located. Conservation proposals in both building and environmental scale were developed in order to mitigate the identified problems. The data obtained for the cultural assets that were constructed centuries ago and subjected to various interventions, may be limited or it may be very difficult to reach the original form of the data because of technical or administrative reasons. At this point; examining the documents about construction, cost estimation or restoration of cultural assets; contributes to the acquisition of valuable data about the history of these assets. Accordingly, Ottoman archival documents were used as the primary source of reference for the study. The documents are found from various archives, including primarily the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives and the Directorate General of Foundations Archives. The Ottoman documents were transcribed first and all the documents were classified according to their subject. Documents which were already transcribed in previous studies were also reviewed to prevent any potential errors. The other major sources that have been examined in this study, are the şer'iye court records and the narh (price) books. It is known that majority of the court records relating to the Davud Pasha Court were disappeared in the fire of 1782, but subsequent records from this date also contain precious data for the study area. The records especially about sales of stores and lands, rental problems, disputes in trade, and inheritance problems; give clues about the physical and social environment around the Davud Pasha complex. The narh books examined in this study are important for the data about the transportation made from Davud Pasha pier. With the information obtained about the pier, the transport network of Davut Pasha pier in the 18th century and the importance of the pier were examined. The relevant section of the dissertation was contributed to the investigation of the change of the region, which is now completely disconnected from the sea. This work also references old maps and visual sources such as photography. During this study, the restoration work at Davud Pasha Madrasah and Davud Pasha Mosque was followed and evaluated in order to include the data obtained from the on-site examinations. It has been found that the destruction caused by natural disasters and fires along with the public works that have been carried out especially since the end of the 19th century, have changed the general urban pattern of the region. Five different maps and sketches belonging to different periods were overlaid in the related section and the physical change of the area was examined. In this study, it is understood that; many historical buildings were dissapeared as a result of zoning activities due to increase in population such as new constructions and boundary changes of properties, as well as natural disasters. But it is possible to follow some of these historical buildings from the street names. This study on the streets, also reveals the changes in the original street pattern. In this section 175 streets and 90 monumental buildings were exemined and it was revealed that; the street names which were associated with the nearby monumental structure or nearby artisan communities, were changed similarly with the physical alteration of the region. On the structure basis, it is visible that the Davud Pasha Complex which was severely damaged by the earthquakes in 1509, 1766 and 1894 was considerably less favoured in terms of conservation and restoration efforts in almost every period compared to the similar complexes located in or close to the centre. Although this study reveals that Davud Pasha Mosque was always in a favourable position in terms of restoration priorities compared to the other buildings of the complex; these implementations are not always of the highest quality in terms of material, technique and workmanship. The riwak (portico) of the last prayer hall, which had been destroyed many times throughout its history and which was almost completely in ruins after the 1855 Bursa earthquake, became the most altered part of the structure over the years and lost its original identity. In the study, the change of the portico in the 19th century and after was examined. In the 20th century, the courtyard was considerably reduced in size due to the construction of new buildings around; only a small portion of the precinct walls, including the fountain could survive. This situation caused the mosque, fountain and shadervan items to break apart spatialy. Reconstruction of the boundaries of the courtyard based on the daily traces of the courtyard wall, is one of the conservation proposals presented in the dissertation in order to restore spatial integrity. As for the Davud Pasha Madrasah, the necessary repairs have not been done for many years after the disasters and the madrasah where different wall systems can be identified did not receive adequate restoration especially in the 20th century, and this aggravated decay and deteriorations. Only one of the riwaq domes retains partly its originality. Moreover, the building housed homeless people and some very unsuitable functions were also assigned. Due to the destruction of the madrasah, there are many demolution requests in archives for the reason of building causing danger to vicinity or using the land area more efficiently. In addition to that; the unqualified and unfinished restorations of the Davud Pasha Madrasah in the 21st century, increased the damage on the building rather than preventing it. These unqualified restoration interventions and their negative results have been examined within the scope of the thesis. This study also examined the present day functions of the existing madrasah in Istanbul and depending on spatial requirements and physical conditions, a new function proposal has been introduced for the Davud Pasha Madrasah. This study revealed that the buildings such as imaret, bath, inn, primary school and shops did not survive to the present day and with the downsizing of the graveyard (hazire), some tombs including the tomb of Davud Pasha's daughter, had been removed. The site plan dated 1885 which was obtained in the archive search is especially informative about the hazire and lost tombs. The same document also contains valuable information about the architecture features of the Davud Pasha Mosque in 19th century. The architectural project prepared for the reconstruction of the Davud Pasha Court after the fire is also important both for being a project of a 19th century structure and for architectural data of the court which gave limited information earlier. The reasons for the prolongation of the repair processes or negligence over the Davud Pasha Complex buildings during the Ottoman period, are probably due to the distant location of the structures from the centre and the economical poorness of its foundation. In the 20th century, the upper scale regional decisions and the zoning activities affected the structures negatively. Additionally, due to the establishment of large hospital complexes in the immediate surroundings of the structures in the 20th century; the destruction has not only remained in the physical dimension, but the historical identity has also been forgotten because of the "medical and health services" perception of the region. Reducing the present emphasis of medical services in region, is one of the important conservation proposals for set out to reveal the historical characteristics of the region. Despite all the destruction and intervention in the Historical Peninsula, the area continues to maintain its cultural identity that extends to the Byzantine period. Due to the fact that there are four other important complexes close to each other besides Davud Pasha Complex, it is also valuable for reflecting the development line of Ottoman architecture. The region is almost an open-air museum for students who are studying in the fields of architecture, history and art history. In this context, in addition to the conservation proposals developed for the Davud Pasha Complex structures and the nearby area, the trip route proposed for the relevant part of the Historical Peninsula may also support the region to become a historical and cultural attraction centre. It is believed that the proposed trip route will provide the ecomomic development of the region by raising tourism income. But problems arising from the unplanned integration of tourism into less favoured historical areas, are being discussed in conservation field. For that reason, such probable problems are also mentioned in the section of conservation proposals and the recommended proposals were supported by international charters and principles about conservation. In addition; transferring to an appropriate place of functions which are incompatible with the historical environment such as warehouses, repair shops, car parks and car wash areas and also new design of open spaces are the main topics mentioned in the study in order to emphasize the historical and cultural enviroment. This dissertation that traces the development and change of Davud Pasha Complex buildings in their architectural and regional context defined as the periphery of the Historical Peninsula by using the original archival documents aims to inspire similar studies.