The Turkish Era buildings in Tekirdağ and township (XIV-XVI. B. C. )

Tekirdağ, which is located in the Trace section of the Marmara Region, has a strategical importance due to the fact that it is situated between the Çanakkale and the Istanbul Straits which connect Asia to Europe. Owing to this strategical position, the city has hosted many civilizations for centuries. Together with the conquest of the Ottoman, it can also be seen that an intensive construction activity was started in the region. These construction activities carried out within the framework of the inhabiting policy gained intensity especially in the XIVth and XVIth centuries. It is understood that countless buildings were constructed in Tekirdağ and in its neighborhood during this time period. However, a great majority of them were ruined because of various reasons. Together with those which have not been able to survive up to the present day, the works of art such as the mosques, covered bazaars, Turkish baths, tombs put forward the richness of the construction type. Some of these are in the form of complicated structures included within the social complexes called külliyes. In the külliyes, the social complexes that have not been able to reach the present day, there were also commercial structures together with the madrasahs, the Muslim teological schools.In the early periods, it is seen that the Islamic dervish monasteries called the tekkes and hermitages called zaviyes which played an important role in the inhabiting of the places that were conquered attained a wide extensiveness. Later, buildings such as mosques and Turkish baths joined these constructions. The mosques that became prominent with their big dimensions and more presentable architecture, the cubic structures with single domes put forward examples with the latitudinal rectangular sanctum sanctorum and with the domes in front of the altar, with printing houses. The Turkish baths that constitute another important group gather under three groups in terms of their plans and architectural features. These are in the form of special baths comprising of two places, a private cellular type lining up around a square place of heat, the middle of which is domed, horizontally heated and with double privacy rooms. As for the tombs, they are seen as octagonal structures with domes. It is understood that these structures dating back to the XV and XVI centuries, and reflecting the features of their own period in terms of architecture underwent some changes as a result of the interventions in the XVIII and XIX centuries. The effects of this period makes its presence felt intensively especially in the embellishments.