From Erzurum Castle to Taşhan, Seljuk and Ottoman Erzurum on Foot

You climb to the castle by a short but steep slope from the corner where Cumhuriyet Avenue meets the Tebrizkapı quarter. Take the slope without hurrying, because the city lies well above sea level and you may be short of breath in the first minutes. We assume that you have checked in advance on the official website that the castle is a ministry visitor site and whether the museum pass is valid there. Once through the gate you find yourself in the courtyard of the inner castle; this inner castle is the part that still stands today. Erzurum's walls once surrounded the city in three rings, but only a few wall fragments and the names of the gates remain of the outer walls. The names Tebriz Gate, Erzincan Gate and Gürcü Gate still live on today as the names of quarters; on the way to the last stop of the route you will walk towards Gürcükapı. Sources attribute the construction of the inner castle to the Byzantine period; the Kültür Portalı gives the year 415 and Emperor Theodosius, while the English Wikipedia gives 422. In the courtyard, first walk along the inner face of the walls and count the towers; the provincial tourism guide writes that the inner castle has eight towers. Look for the remains of an old bath built of brick inside the courtyard. Regular excavations have been carried out at the castle since 2000, and they have uncovered various rooms, ceramics and small finds. Respect the protective barriers around the excavation areas and do not go near the open trenches. Then walk to Tepsi Minare in the southwest corner of the courtyard. This tower was built in the Saltukid period, between 1124 and 1132 according to the provincial guide, both as a watchtower and as the minaret of the castle masjid. Notice that its shaft rises in brick on a stone base and that an inscription band runs around it near the balcony. It is not known exactly when the clock was added to the tower, but Wikipedia writes that this happened before 1843; its other name, the Clock Tower, comes from this addition. The provincial guide writes that you can climb to the top of the tower by wooden steps; ask the staff at the entrance whether the climb is open that day. Immediately east of the tower stands the small castle masjid with its conical roof; sources count it among the oldest Turkish buildings in Erzurum. Do not forget that there is also a fountain with a pointed arch and an inscription on the southern face of the castle. Look out over the city from the points where you can reach the upper level of the walls; to the south you can pick out the slopes of Palandöken, and below the minarets of the madrasas. Morning light is good for photographs, because the sun rises in the east and lights up the inner face of the walls. Stones from the parts of the castle that collapsed over time were used in the middle of the 19th century to build the redoubts around the city; so the walls you see are what remains of a structure that also supplied material to other buildings in the city. The castle was repaired in various periods, and the last major repairs were made under Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century and under Mahmud II in the 19th century. There is little shade in the courtyard, so in summer do not forget to bring a hat and water. When you finish your visit, go down the same slope and head southeast; the Çifte Minareli Medrese is a few hundred metres away.

Source: Kültür Portalı, Erzurum Kalesi; Türkiye Müzeleri, Erzurum Kalesi; Erzurum İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü, Turizm Rehberi; TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Erzurum; Wikipedia, Tepsi Minare.

You approach the madrasa from the southeastern foot of the castle, from the Tebrizkapı quarter. Before going in, cross to the opposite pavement and take in the whole of the north-facing facade. The two minarets that give the building its name rise on either side of the portal; the Kültür Portalı writes that both are twenty-six metres tall. Look closely at the glazed turquoise pieces in the brick shafts of the minarets and at the decoration on their bases. Then bring your eyes down to the side faces of the portal. On the western panel a double-headed eagle, two snakes with open mouths and a tree of life made of lobed leaves are carved. On the symmetrical eastern panel there is no leaf or eagle carving; try to spot this difference with your own eyes. The provincial tourism guide also stresses that the two sides are not the same, one being plain and the other worked far more finely. Palmette and rumi motifs are used most often in the decoration; looking at how the two interlock is the easiest way to understand Seljuk stone carving. The construction date of the madrasa is not certain, because the building has no inscription. The Kültür Portalı and the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam generally give the late 13th century, while the Turkish Wikipedia gives the year 1253, so the sources diverge here. The name Hatuniye Medresesi comes from the idea that the building may have been commissioned by Hundi Hatun, the daughter of the Seljuk sultan, or by Padişah Hatun of the Ilkhanid dynasty. Passing through the portal you come out into the open courtyard, which is surrounded by porticoes on all four sides. The building has two storeys and four iwans, and it is counted among the most important examples of the open-courtyard madrasa group. Notice that most of the columns in the porticoes have cylindrical shafts and a few have octagonal ones. The rooms of the students and teachers line both sides of the courtyard; there are nineteen rooms on the ground floor and eighteen on the upper floor. According to Wikipedia the upper floor is divided into four separate groups, and to pass from one group to another you have to go down to the lower floor. According to the sources, the square room west of the entrance was once used as a masjid. On the south side of the courtyard rises the kümbet with a twelve-sided body joined to the main iwan; it is roofed with a cone outside and a dome inside, and the Kültür Portalı regards it as the largest among its contemporaries in Anatolia. The building was repaired by Murad IV in the Ottoman period and was used for military purposes for a time. Having served as the Erzurum Museum between 1942 and 1967, the madrasa is used today both as a museum and as an exhibition hall; ask at the entrance which exhibition is open during your visit. In 2014 the madrasa was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List together with the Seljuk madrasas of Sivas, Konya, Kayseri and Kırşehir. Because the facade faces north it receives soft light throughout the day, which makes it easier to photograph the details of the stonework. On the way out, turn back to Cumhuriyet Avenue and walk west; the Yakutiye Medresesi is about half a kilometre away.

Source: Kültür Portalı, Çifte Minareli Medrese; Erzurum İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü, Turizm Rehberi; TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Erzurum; Wikipedia, Çifte Minareli Medrese (Erzurum).

As you walk west along Cumhuriyet Avenue you can pick out the single minaret of the Yakutiye Medresesi from a distance. Pause for a while in the wide square in front of the madrasa and take in the building as a whole. According to its inscription the madrasa was built in 1310, in the reign of the Ilkhanid ruler Sultan Öljeitü, by Hoca Cemaleddin Yakut in the name of Ghazan Khan and Bolugan Hatun. The Kültür Portalı presents it as the largest of the covered-courtyard madrasas in Anatolia. Comparing this building with the open-courtyard Çifte Minareli Medrese you have just seen is the real gain of the route. First approach the portal, which projects from the facade. In the niches on the side faces of the portal, look for palm leaves rising from a sphere worked in openwork, two leopards and an eagle. Sources interpret this composition as a tree of life and write that it brings together symbols of the Central Asian Turks. Every surface of the low-arched portal is covered with carving, so set aside a few minutes to see the details. Then look at the minaret on the corner. The shaft of the minaret carries geometric decoration built with glazed and unglazed bricks; Wikipedia writes that the glazed pieces are turquoise and aubergine purple. Only the base of the thick tower on the other corner survives, and it is capped with a conical roof; it is thought that this minaret either collapsed long ago or was never built. Once inside, look at the four-iwan plan and at the muqarnas dome covering the centre of the courtyard. The light filtering through the opening in the middle of the dome shows how the interiors of covered-courtyard madrasas were lit. Six rooms line each side of the courtyard facing each other, and the carving at the entrance of each room is different; sources write that this was determined by the class and rank of the rooms. Try to find the marble endowment deed above the southern vault, which bears the names of the six villages endowed to the madrasa. In the Ottoman period the madrasa was used for a time as a foundry, and from the late 19th century onwards as a military depot. It was repaired several times in the Republican period; the Kültür Portalı writes that one of the latest restorations was carried out in the 1990s. Today the building is used as the Museum of Turkish Islamic Arts and Ethnography. In the display cases in the rooms, look for bracelets set with agate, a wooden writing set inlaid with mother-of-pearl and an enamelled tombak ewer set. The Kültür Portalı notes that a seated human figure playing a drum on a green-glazed animal is the only known example of its kind in Anatolia. The Yakutiye Medresesi was also placed on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2014 under the heading of the Anatolian Seljuk Madrasas. Check the museum's closing day and current visiting conditions on its official website. On the way out turn north and walk towards Menderes Avenue; Taşhan is a few hundred metres away.

Source: Kültür Portalı, Yakutiye Medresesi Türk İslam Eserleri ve Etnografya Müzesi; TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Erzurum; Erzurum İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü, Turizm Rehberi; Wikipedia, Yakutiye Medresesi.

Taşhan stands on Menderes Avenue, at the northwestern foot of the castle. Enter the building through the main entrance facing west; this facade was pushed slightly forward in the 1965 restoration, and a room for the caravanserai manager was left above the deep barrel-vaulted entrance. Look at the inscription above the entrance. The Kültür Portalı writes that in the inscription the building is called a ribat, a kind of forward outpost, because Erzurum was a frontier city at that time. The sources diverge on the date of construction: the Kültür Portalı and the English Wikipedia give 1561, while the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, relying on the name of Rüstem Pasha in the inscription, estimates a date between 1544 and 1561. The provincial tourism guide, for its part, notes that the exact date is unknown because the inscription is worn. When you step into the courtyard, see how the porticoes of cut stone surround a rectangular courtyard. Behind the porticoes are rooms covered with pointed-arched vaults; the sources give the number of rooms on the lower floor as between thirty-one and thirty-two. In the middle of the northern portico there is a deep iwan that interrupts the run of the portico; look towards it from the centre of the courtyard. According to the TDV, the building underwent a thorough repair in the 1960s and the part adjoining its north wall was rebuilt from the foundations. You reach the upper floor through a separate door south of the portal. On the upper floor there is a corridor running all the way around the building, and on both sides of the corridor there are pointed-arched niches whose fronts have been closed off to turn them into shops. You can count the domes at the corners and in the middle of the sides by looking up from the corridor. It is known that the caravanserai originally also contained a soup kitchen, a masjid, a resting place, shops and sections for animals, but some of these have not survived. Today the building is both the workshop and the sales place of the Oltu stone craftsmen. In the workshops you can watch how the masters shape and polish the black Oltu stone; ask the master's permission before taking a closer look. Prayer beads, rings and necklaces are the pieces produced most often. Oltu stone, also known as black amber, is extracted from small mines called galleries in the Oltu district in the northeast of the province, and in 2015 it was registered with a designation of origin. If you want to buy a piece, visit several workshops to compare the craftsmanship and ask the seller whether the item is Oltu stone. The porticoes in the courtyard form a sheltered walking area that can be visited in rain and snow too, which makes this the stop of the route that remains comfortable on winter days. Opposite the han stands the historic Boyahane Bath, which takes its name from the many dyers who once worked around it. After finishing the route here, you can walk back to Cumhuriyet Avenue in a short stroll by way of Gürcükapı.

Source: Kültür Portalı, Rüstem Paşa Kervansarayı (Taşhan); TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Erzurum; Erzurum İl Kültür ve Turizm Müdürlüğü, Turizm Rehberi; KÜRE Ansiklopedi, Oltu Taşı; Wikipedia, Rüstem Pasha Caravanserai (Erzurum).