Investigation and Conservation Approaches of Syriac Religious Architecture in Mardin Rural Area

Mardin is one of the ancient cities of Turkey. Hosting numerous civilizations throughout history, the city has a rich cultural structure and historical background. The city of Mardin continues to keep the traces of the past alive, especially in its architectural structures. Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Armenians and Yezidis have lived together for hundreds of years in this ancient city. Each community has built their own religious places in this city. Within the scope of this thesis, churches and monasteries, which are religious structures of communities with Christianity in Mardin rural area, were examined. It is aimed for many churches and monasteries located in the countryside and difficult to reach to identify, document, examine the architectural features, determine the causes of deterioration and conservation problems, and establish a restoration methodology for the preservation of rural religious architecture in Mardin in line with the determinations made. Within the scope of the research, archive research, field work, on-site inspection-observation, interview and documentation and office work were carried out. This thesis consists of five chapters. In the introduction part of the thesis, the nature, purpose, scope and method of the subject are presented. In the first section, previous studies in this field are examined. In the second chapter, the development of Christianity in and around Mardin is addressed. In the third chapter, by identifying and documenting the churches and monasteries in Mardin rural area, their architectural features were explained; churches and monasteries were classified according to their plan features and the location, history, spatial and structural features of the buildings were explained. As a next step, the facade features, plan and facade elements of these buildings were examined in detail; bell towers, garden/courtyard doors, entrance doors and windows were evaluated separately. Materials and construction techniques used in churches and monasteries; foundations, floors, walls and cover systems are explained under their main headings. Within this framework, 61 buildings were examined. In the fourth chapter, the reasons for the damages of the Syriac religious buildings in Mardin rural area and preservation problems are explained under the headings of internal and external causes, and in the fifth chapter, the protection and restoration practices against the determined deteriorations are presented as suggestions. Finally, the results obtained from the study are presented together with the preservation recommendations.