Draman Kefeli (Kefevi) Mosque conservation project

Istanbul has been the capital of the Byzantine Empire for many years and has continued its existence as the capital of the Ottoman Empire after 1453. After the conquest of Istanbul by the Ottoman Empire, the architectural identity began to change. Some Byzantine buildings were destroyed, and some of them, especially religious buildings, were restored in accordance with the "recruitment policy" and thus, they had a chance to be protected by changing their functions. Today's city still has important architectural characteristics of these two empires. The subject of this thesis is a Byzantine structure which is named "Kefeli (Kefevi) Mosque" today. The building is located in Fatih district, province of Draman, and preserved considerably to this day by the change of function. The main function or exact year of construction cannot be specified a definite result in the sources or studies about the building which is done until today. At the sources, the building is described as different functions like a church or a refectory (trapeza). Although the exact information about the period of building before conquest of Istanbul is not known, the information of the next period is clear. By the conquest of Crimea in 1475, some of the Kefe people who were here and made up of Armenians and Catholics were brought to Kefeliköy in the Bosphorus and some of them to the area where Kefeli Mosque is present. It is known that the name of the region came from this people and that the building is allocated to these communities. This structure, operating as Saint Nicholas Church until 1626, during the Murat IV. period, the mosque was converted and still used as a mosque. The building sits in an inclination area of approximately 25.30 meters and 13.40 meters, and located towards north-south direction. A wooden side nave is added to the west of the rectangular main area which has an apse on the north façade. The entry of the building is on the west side today. The north façade which is one of the short façades of the rectangular plan, is a polygonal pentagon outside, a curvilinear inside. There are double row windows on the upper and lower elevations on the facades except the northern façade which has an apse. The construction technique of the walls is usage of the stone and brick alternatively. Arrangment of the walls are consisted of four rows of brick act as girders and four rows of stone. This construction technique, which uses brick and rubble stone, is widely used in Istanbul, the western coasts of Anatolia, the Balkans and Italy, and is the main tradition of Byzantine architecture. The stones used are limestone like the other stones used in Istanbul, which have shells inside. The façades are unplastered. The top cover is wooden hipped roof. Material documentation, deterioration and period analyzes were done after the documentation studies. The body walls are the only part of the building which reaches today as the original element of construction. The building is repaired extensively in 1968 by the General Directorate of Foundations, thus there is no structural damage observable in the building. The periods of the building split up to five periods; they are approximately 11-12. Century (Byzantine period), 12-17. Century, in the year 1626, repair of 1968-71 and after the restoration of 1968-71 to this day. The building had most characteristic changes during the convertion into the mosque, but today there is no original building element belonging to this turn. The results obtained from the period analyses gave the conclusion that the structure of the building was not only changed during the function change but also during various periods before and after the convertion. After the bibliographic scanning and documentation work is completed, restitution studies are started. Since there is not enough resources available for the Byzantine restitution, which is thought to be a refectory building belonging to the Petra Monastery, the analogy studies were carried out and the religios structures which belong to Byzantine around Istanbul were examined. Since similar functions were not found in Istanbul due to its function, other geographies influenced by Byzantine architecture were examined and a list of refectories belonging to the monasteries was extracted. Monastic life and monastic structures have been examined in order to understand the role and physical connection of refectories in monastic life. In the study of restitution drawings in accordance with the original function of the building, the plan chart was drawn from the existing traces in the structure and the facade layouts were drawn in accordance with the results obtained from the previous restitution studies and analogogical datas. The restitution of the Byzantine period which is thought to have a three nave basilical plan scheme is distant from certainty and presented as a hypothetical study. Due to inadequate information of the Byzantine period, the original function of the building cannot be proven to be a refectory or a church. The restitution of the second turn, which will affect the restoration project of the building, has been worked on for the 1940s, when the building was used as the mosque and the maximum amount of information obtained. During this work, the documentation drawings of the building which belongs to former researchers, and the photographs from different archieves are used as the most helpful datas. Following the detailed documentation and analysis work, the intervention methods to be applied to the structure have been determined. Since the 17th century, the building has maintained its existence as a mosque, and since this function has been actively used by the local people for a long time, no function change has been foreseen. The primary purpose is removing the unqualified additions from the building and revealing the cultural layers of the structure through its architectural features and different periods and functions; and presenting these layers to the visitors. Arrangaments are made in order to use the existing function more efficiently. Decisions about the building elements are taken in order the second periodical turn, with an integrity in the direction of the restitution of 1940s. But the changes that took place during the repairs carried out in 1968 which were not incompatible with the structure and which provides integrity are preserved as period addition. A number of revisions were made in order to increase the functionality of the interior. The area where the apse of the structure is located has been opened to provide spatial integrity. If the repair to be done reveals the original stone floor, it is anticipated to exhibite this flooring here and turned this space into a presentation area. In the main garden of the building a design axis which consisting of contemporary inserts was created. The exhibition path, ablution area and toilets were placed on this axis. It is envisaged that the basement floor, which is in the deficient state today, will serve as an exhibition area. In the back garden of the building, it is envisaged to remove the buildings which have infraction to the parcel boundry of the monument. Parcels belonging to these buildings must be expropriated and to reach the information about the original plan scheme of the building, archaeological excavations must be done in these areas. If any ruins belonging to monument is found, it has to be presented without any intervention. The monument has architectural features of both two great empires and two religion. Transferring these informations and preserving the building to future generations is very important in terms of reflecting the cultural layers it possesses.