II. Bayezid Köprüsü (Geyve)

The II. Bayezid Bridge is a stone bridge over the Sakarya River at the point in Geyve district where Alifuatpaşa and Geyve meet. Locally it is also known as the Alifuatpaşa Bridge. According to the article by Semavi Eyice in the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, the bridge carried the historic Geyve-Göynük post road across the river. The municipal brochure also stresses that the bridge stood at one of the important junctions of the İstanbul-Baghdad road. The bridge's seven-line Arabic building inscription states that Sultan II. Bayezid had it built in the year 901, that is 1495-1496 in the Common Era. The inscription is carved on a marble panel and stands above a mihrab-shaped niche in the projecting inscription kiosk on the Geyve side of the bridge. The panel is surrounded by a frame decorated with relief motifs. The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism highlights the hatayi-style decoration with rumi and peony motifs in this frame as a dated example of Turkish ornamental taste at the end of the 15th century. On the back of the kiosk there is a second, square inscription. It contains a medallion-shaped composition of great value in terms of calligraphy; Eyice describes the writing as radiating out from a single centre. Below the medallion one reads the phrase "Amelü'l-fakir Abdullah" and the name of Architect Murad İbn Abdullah. From these signatures Eyice infers that the bridge was designed by Architect Murad, son of Abdullah, and that the construction was carried out by a master builder named Abdullah. The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, however, attributes the design to Fakir Abdullah, architect and engineer of II. Bayezid; the sources read the inscription differently on this point. An older crossing is known to have existed here. According to the record quoted by Eyice, Orhan Gazi had an old bridge over the Sakarya repaired and assigned the people of Köprübaşı, a village he had founded nearby, to maintain it. II. Bayezid had the new bridge built from its foundations about 150 metres south of this older structure. The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism notes that remains of a Byzantine-era bridge can still be seen on the islet to the north of today's bridge. The dimensions differ between sources. The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism and the Culture Portal give the bridge's length as 150 metres, its width as 5.60 metres and its outer width including the parapets as 6.30 metres, and they speak of fourteen arches. The TDV Encyclopaedia, relying on Gülgün Tunç's measurement, gives the length as 196.50 metres and the width as 5.50 metres and writes that the bridge originally had fifteen arches. According to the encyclopaedia, water flows under only five of the arches, while the remaining ten stand on dry ground and come into use only during floods. The bridge is built of white cut stone with neat workmanship, and its piers have triangular cutwaters on the upstream side. The following centuries of the bridge were marked by repairs. It is known that during the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent a decree was sent to the judge of İzmit for its repair. In 1810 the secretary of an embassy travelling to Iran wrote that one of the bridge's arches had collapsed, and a European travel account published in 1864 reported that two arches had fallen and the missing section had been completed in timber. In 1889-1890 a survey was made for a masonry repair, but the project was never carried out. During the War of Independence, on 17 May 1920, the bridge was defended by a small force under the command of Ali Fuat (Cebesoy). According to the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, the building next to the bridge opened in October 1989 as the National Forces and Ali Fuat Cebesoy Museum. In the 1949 repair the collapsed arches were not rebuilt; the timber patch was replaced with a sturdier section in iron, and this is the steel span seen in the middle of the bridge today. When you arrive, first try to see the whole silhouette from one of the two banks; the transition between the stone arches and the steel section tells the story of the bridge's five centuries at a glance. Then cross to the Geyve side and examine the inscription kiosk closely, looking at the fine decoration in its frame. To look for the remains of the old bridge on the northern islet, look upstream from the riverbank. The bridge is still open to traffic today, so watch out for vehicles while walking on it. This museum displays photographs, maps and documents from the National Forces period together with belongings of Ali Fuat Cebesoy. The museum is closed on Mondays; check its visiting hours on the website of the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism. The bridge is about 30 kilometres from the centre of Sakarya and can be reached in all four seasons by asphalt road. Since Alifuatpaşa lies on the railway, arriving by train is also possible. From here the road south-east to the historic houses of Taraklı follows the river valley.