Projects in Sultanahmet Square in the Late Ottoman Period

Abstract

In the 19th century, the foci of the spatial change in the capital of the Ottoman Empire were the squares dating back to the previous period. As buildings were endowed by their builders, the Byzantine forums had disappeared during the Ottoman Empire. During this period, the only place known and named as a square was the Hippodrome (Atmeydanı). To the south of Hagia Sophia, a part of the old Augustaion, whose exact boundaries cannot be determined, turned into a neighborhood. After the fire in 1913 which demolished the neighborhood, the area once more transformed into a square (Hagia Sophia Square). Today, this area is called Sultanahmet Square and is home to one of the first modern indicators of the period, the Darülfünun building, inaugurated in 1863 as university but later used as the Ministry of Justice building. In the blocks overlooking the square, a project for the Zaptieh building to replace the old Finance Administration building came to the fore in 1869, and later in 1871, the first model Central Prison was built next to the Ibrahim Pasha Palace. However, it was demolished in 1939 when the Courthouse was being built, and the prisoners were transferred to the Sultanahmet Jail, built in the “New Ottoman” style in 1918 to the east of Darülfünun. Decorated with symbols of power since the Byzantine, this square continued to be the “central square of the Empire” with different manifestations in the 19th century.