Döğer Kervansarayı

The Döğer Caravanserai is an Ottoman caravanserai standing in Döğer, a small town in the İhsaniye district of Afyonkarahisar. The Culture Portal states that the building lies on the historic Hejaz road, at a point close to the borders of the provinces of Afyonkarahisar, Kütahya and Eskişehir. The caravanserai was built in 1434 by Sultan Murad II. According to the Turkish Wikipedia, the sultan stayed at Döğer during his campaign against the Karamanid Beylik and had the building constructed at that time. The Culture Portal presents it as a distinctive work of the early Ottoman period. The building has a rectangular plan running east to west. Wikipedia gives its length as about 56 metres and its width as about 13 metres. The caravanserai consists of two adjoining parts: a two-storey inn section and a single-storey camel stable. Both parts are entered through monumental portals arranged in the form of an iwan. As there is no inscription above the doors, nothing is known for certain about the architect of the building. The camel stable is the section where the travellers' animals were sheltered, fed and cared for. It was designed as a wide, high space with a single span. The hearths are found only on the entrance facade, while light and ventilation come through narrow slit windows. The ground floor of the inn section was arranged as a resting and common area. The upper floor holds the rooms where travellers stayed, and the Culture Portal writes that these rooms had windows and hearths. The main rooms are covered with domes, the others with barrel vaults. The iwan in the middle of the upper floor was arranged as a small prayer room, lit by a mihrab niche and slit windows. Wikipedia also notes that the rooms had separate arrangements for heating, preparing food and washing. The outer walls, the roof and the two conical dome caps of the building are faced with cut blocks of the local tuff stone. The inn and the stable were treated as separate masses, and this division is easy to read from outside as well. Because of its plan and its hidden ventilation system, the building is regarded as an advanced continuation of the Seljuk caravanserai tradition. The German researcher Robin Wimmel examined and documented the caravanserai on 21 August 2008 and included it in his doctoral study on Ottoman caravanserais at the Technical University of Berlin. The caravanserai was restored by the General Directorate of Foundations between 1991 and 1993. In 2007 the surroundings were landscaped and the inner and outer walls were reinforced. The Kültür Envanteri database notes that the building provided lodging for travellers and caravans on historic trade and pilgrimage routes. Begin your visit outside and walk along the long facade, comparing the two separate portals and the difference between the inn and stable masses. You need to step back a little from the facade to see the dome caps and the roof. If the building is open, look at the light filtering through the slit windows into the high, wide interior of the stable. Since access to the interior and visiting conditions can change, check the current situation with the Afyonkarahisar Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism. According to the Culture Portal, Döğer is reached by a road that branches northwest from the Afyonkarahisar-Eskişehir state highway. The town is known as a place that lives from growing poppies, sugar beet, wheat and potatoes. The Aslankaya Monument and Lake Emre are a few kilometres away, so it is easy to visit the caravanserai on the same day as the Phrygian monuments. The Phrygian Way hiking trail, which runs from Afyonkarahisar to Yazılıkaya in Eskişehir, also passes through Döğer, so the caravanserai can also be added to a walk as a resting point.