ARCHITECTURE

The most significant change came during the reconstruction of the city in 1579 by Lala Mustafa Pasha. The castle built duringthe Seljuk era was fortified; bridges, mosques, medreses (theological schools), hamams (Turkish baths), mills, houses, workplaces and markets were constructed. Kars displayed the features of an Ottoman city at that time.

The urban planning and architecture of Kars is quite original. The castle (see page 41) was the centre of the city until the 1878 occupation by Russia. One or two-storey buildings with flat earth roofs were located at the sides of the narrow streets on the slopes of the castle. Bathroom or toilets were built outside the main houses, which were made of mudbrick or piled stone.

During the 40 years of Russian rule from 1878 to 1918, Kars underwent a period of modernization. The settlement insidethe castle was abandoned and the new city was established on a plain called Tahtduzu to the north of the Kars stream. After this, Kars was divided into old and new cities.

Kars’s new appearance illustrated the influence of modernization and westernization in Russian culture. The Moscow style of asymmetric curved streets celebrated in the Middle Ages gives way to a European style, like that of St. Petersburg established on the Baltic Coast in 1703 by Peter the Great, who is considered to be the pioneer of modernization in Russia.

The new city was planned by Dutch architects in 1890 in what is called a grid style, with perpendicular streets crossing each other, wide pavements and large parks. In this settlement plan, of which the Yusufpasa, Ortakapi and Cumhuriyet neighbourhoods formed the centre, one- or two-storey buildings were built with straight, clear-cut stones in accordance with Baltic architectural style.

The stonework of the new city was carried out by Armenian masters. From the mines established at the skirts of Dereici and Karadag, building stone was extracted; black keveng stone brought from Ani was used for the reliefs, and basalt transported from nearby villages was used for the outer walls. For the woodwork, juniper pines from the Soganli Mountains were used, and roofs were covered by thick, flat iron sheets. Zinc was used in the gutters of the roofs to give flexibility to the building. Almost all stone buildings were fitted with a heating system called Pec.

The streets were made with natural stone, and the pavements with sal tasi (timber hitch stone). Channels for draining waste water were wide and flowed into a main pipe which discharged into the Kars stream. The water network was built underground, and streets were lit with carbide lamps hanging from tall bronze poles.

The main streets featured official, religious buildings, workplaces and houses, the architecture mostly of Armenian stone, while other houses were more characteristic of central Russia and Europe. These designs, and the Russian influence over city life, led the people of Kars to develop a different sense of urban culture compared with other regional cities.

Kars continued to expand in the Tahtduzu region after the declaration of the Republic, though more buildings in the Ottoman and Anatolian architectural styles were built near the old city around the Ortakapi neighbourhood. Today, concrete apartment blocks have replaced some of the stone buildings in the city centre.

A detail from Tuncer Guvensoy's house  Photograph:Burcu Yilmaz

PEC SYSTEM

PEC SYSTEM: In most civilian and official buildings built in the Russian period in Kars, a heating system called pec was employed. In this system there is a heating source like a fireplace inside the thick columns at the junction of two walls, and this heat is dispersed through pipes built inside the walls which are all connected to the source of the heat. This system, designed for harsh climates, is widely used in Baltic and Caucasian architecture. Besides being efficient, great attention was also paid to the aesthetics of the fireplaces.

 

 

 

Photograph: Erkan Karagoz

URBAN PRESERVATION

Turkey’s cities mostly began to draw up urban plans in the Republican Period, a century later than the cities of Europe. Kars isunique in this respect: its city plan was created at the end of the 19th century.

The first city reconstruction plan in the Republican Period was drawn up in 1956 by Professor Kemal Ahmet Aru. A plan to protect the castle and its surroundings was prepared by Fikret Baykam and accepted by a board in Erzurum in 1995.

Awareness of the need to protect and preserve Kars started to increase after 2000. The municipal government initiated plans for the old city and Tahtduzu district, and the city’s expansion was regulated. Academics, NGO's, local people and politicians have been included in this process of deciding their city’s future.

The historic Tahtduzu district was declared a protected area and the number of registered buildings rose to 208. Today new projects are being designed to preserve the cultural heritage in a practical way and keep its essence alive.

Nowadays, parks and gardens are being built to meet demand for green space and recreation areas. The project to revive the old city named Kaleici is another very important effort under way with the assistance of the Global Heritage Fund and Kars Municipality; they aim to make the historic and cultural richness of Kars more visible.