From the Citadel to the Hillside, from the Walls of Bursa to the Hünkar Köşkü

Begin the route at Zindan Kapı, at the south-western end of the Hisar; bus 4/A from Kent Meydanı or bus 4/İ from Çakır Hamam takes you up to Pınarbaşı. According to the Bursa Museums Directorate, the walls go back to the second century BC and to Prusias I, king of Bithynia; the Romans, the Byzantines and the Ottomans repaired and used them until the nineteenth century. The Culture Portal gives the total length as 3.38 kilometres and counts 14 towers between Tophane and Çakır Hamam. According to Wikipedia, most of the walls standing today belong to the fortifications built in the third century AD after the Gothic raids. Zindan Kapı reopened on 17 October 2021 after a restoration begun in 2015, and the dungeons that gave the gate its name were turned into a contemporary art gallery. The Kanlı Kuyu, the well at the entrance, is said to be where corporal punishments were carried out; the floors tell in turn of the Bithynian and Hellenistic period, the Roman and Byzantine period and the Ottoman period, and the third floor leads through to towers 9 and 10. When this route was being prepared, the museum page showed the building as temporarily closed to visitors; check on bursamuze.com whether it is open, and if not, look from outside and carry on.

According to the Culture Portal, the angular tower east of the gate was built in 1418 by Çelebi Sultan Mehmed and has survived undamaged; look at it first, since it is one of the best preserved parts of the wall line. The remains of the old prison can be made out on either side of the gate. Wikipedia writes that on the southern side, where defence was hardest, there is a double wall, inner and outer, while on the north, east and west a single line follows the high travertine slopes. Walk east from Zindan Kapı to Pınarbaşı Park; the Culture Portal describes the Fetih Kapısı here as the former ground for festivals and fairs, and the gate has been laid out today as a ceremonial ground that hosts the conquest celebrations every year. Wikipedia counts the same gate as a country gate 1.15 metres wide and notes that it is also called the Water Gate, because the water coming down from Uludağ collected here. The next gate is Yer Kapı; it stands near the Üftade Mosque, at the end of Kavaklı Caddesi, which carries the trace of the Hellenistic grid plan inside the castle. To the right of the gate stands the Yer Kapı (Kara Ali) Mosque and to the left the old schoolhouse.

Enter the Hisar along Kavaklı Caddesi; the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam records that in 1640 Evliya Çelebi counted nearly two thousand households, seven neighbourhoods, a bath and a bazaar inside the inner castle. Orhan Gazi, who took the city in 1326, reinforced the castle with towers according to Wikipedia; the walls ruined in the attacks of Timur and the Karamanids were repaired by Hacı İvaz Paşa on the orders of Çelebi Mehmed. According to the TDV, Hacı İvaz Paşa had defended the castle of Bursa against Mehmed Bey of Karaman in 1414 and was then raised to the governorship of Bursa and the vizierate. Wikipedia writes that, to speed up the repairs, reused pieces such as columns, capitals and orthostats from Roman temples were built in; look for these foreign stones in the wall faces. Saltanat Kapı at the eastern end of the line is also called the Hisar Gate; the Culture Portal describes it as the main city gate of pre-Ottoman Bursa and writes that it opened onto the Silk and Spice Road. The earthquake of 1855 destroyed part of the walls and gates; according to Wikipedia, the governor of the day had Saltanat Kapı demolished in 1904, and the gate was rebuilt in the 2000s according to the restitution by the architect İbrahim Yılmaz. In the restoration the existing stones were kept and plant roots cleaned out; you can make out the line where the old fabric meets the new above the arch. According to the Culture Portal, the restoration of the first 500-metre section of the wall and the Saltanat Kapı projects were approved by the conservation board at the beginning of 2005; Wikipedia adds that the Osmangazi and Metropolitan municipalities have been at work since 2004.

On top of the northern wall, on Osmangazi Caddesi, stands the Surüstü Konağı, resting on a tower; the Osmangazi Municipality dates it to the second quarter of the twentieth century and writes that it rebuilt the house between 2008 and 2011 after expropriation. The view over the plain from in front of the house explains at a single glance why the Hisar was a line of defence for two thousand years. To photograph the gate arches, choose the hours when the surfaces are not in shadow; the Pınarbaşı side has better light in the morning, Saltanat Kapı in the east towards noon. Tophane Park is a few minutes' walk from Saltanat Kapı, and the route moves on there.

Source: Kültür Portalı, Bursa Surları; Bursa Müzeler, Zindan Kapı; Wikipedia, Bursa Kalesi.

Walk from Saltanat Kapı to the north-eastern edge of the Hisar; Tophane Park lies on the terrace overlooking the plain, on the site of the old Meydan-ı Osmaniye. According to the Bursa entry of the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, this is where Orhan Gazi built his Bey Sarayı, the palace overlooking the plain, and the site of the palace is known today as Tophane. According to the same entry, Orhan Gazi converted the monastery in the castle into a mosque, and an inscription dated 1337-1338 shows that a mosque was built here. The clock tower rises in the middle of the park; according to Wikipedia it is 33 metres tall, 4.65 metres wide and has six floors. The first tower, built in the reign of Abdülaziz, had collapsed before the 1900s at an unknown date. Construction of the present tower began on 2 August 1904 and the building was finished on 31 August 1905; Governor Reşit Mümtaz Paşa opened it with a ceremony marking the 29th anniversary of the accession of Abdülhamid II. The infobox of the article gives 1906 as the year of completion while the text says 1905; we follow the text. On the top floor there are four clock faces, each 90 centimetres across, a wooden staircase of 89 steps climbs from the south door, and the clock today is electronic.

Thanks to its height the tower was used as a fire lookout, and the Metropolitan Municipality keeps up this use; climbing inside may not always be possible, so step back to the far edge of the park for a full-length photograph. A model of the tower is displayed in the park of clock towers opened in Safranbolu in 2012. The viewpoint at the edge of the park looks over the plain of Bursa and the north of the city; from this edge you can read why the Hisar was founded on this rock. Because the plain lies to the north, the sun is behind you all day and the view can be photographed at any hour; the air is clearer early in the morning. Behind the tower stand the tombs of Osman Gazi and Orhan Gazi; according to the Culture Portal, the round-planned Byzantine building was damaged in the fire of 1801, both tombs were completely destroyed in the earthquake of 1855, and both were rebuilt in 1863 by Sultan Abdülaziz. The octagonal tomb of Osman Gazi, built of cut küfeki stone and lit by seven windows, is this building of 1863; its interior is decorated with pen-work in a baroque manner. If you wish to enter the tombs, keep quiet, follow the attendant's instructions and ask permission before taking photographs inside. The Culture Portal counts the tombs as part of the "Bursa and Cumalıkızık" site inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014.

Wikipedia lists, besides the Bey Sarayı, buildings inside the castle such as the Alaeddin Bey Mosque, the Şehadet Mosque and the Orhan Bey Bath; when you leave the park you will see some of these early Ottoman buildings in the streets of the Hisar. The benches in the park suit a short rest, but keep the rest short; the longest walk of the route starts here. To go down from Tophane, return to Saltanat Kapı; once through the gate, the slope down to the Ulu Mosque and the bazaar district brings you to Atatürk Caddesi. From here it is about two kilometres on foot to Yeşil: east along Atatürk Caddesi as far as Heykel, then across the Gökdere valley by a bridge and up the slope to Yeşil. According to the TDV, the deep valley of the Gökdere separates the centre of the city from the Yeşil quarter, which takes its name from the Yeşil Mosque and the Yeşil Tomb. If you would rather not walk, take the buses that run along Atatürk Caddesi to the Yeşil quarter, as the Culture Portal describes; the Şehreküstü station of BursaRay is also directly below the Hisar. The Ulu Mosque and the hans are not stops on this route; they are described in the first-capital and bazaar routes, so today pass in front of them and carry on.

Source: Wikipedia, Tophane Saat Kulesi (Bursa); TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Bursa; Kültür Portalı, Osman Gazi Türbesi.

When you reach Yeşil, you will find the museum in the madrasa building beside the mosque, at Yeşil Caddesi, Zehrimar Camii Sokak. According to the page of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the museum has no closing day; look at muze.gov.tr for the ticket office hours and the fee, and the Müzekart is valid. The building is the madrasa of the Yeşil Complex, also known as the Sultaniye Madrasa, and is one of the earliest examples of Ottoman madrasas. The Ministry dates the complex to between 1414 and 1424 and names Hacı İvaz Paşa as its architect; according to the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, construction of the mosque began in 1414 and ended in December 1419, and the inscription names Hacı İvaz Paşa as the architect who planned the building. This complex of Çelebi Mehmed, in the words of the Culture Portal, gave new life to a Bursa ruined after Timur. The name of Hacı İvaz Paşa is familiar from the first stop: the vizier who defended and repaired the walls is here the trustee and chief architect of the complex. According to the TDV, he was blinded in 1424 and forced to live in Bursa, where he died in an outbreak of plague in 1428.

Enter through the cross-vaulted iwan on the north; the Culture Portal describes the plan as rectangular, with only the main iwan projecting outwards. Three sides of the rectangular courtyard are surrounded by domed and vaulted arcades; the pointed arches of the arcades, built of stone and brick, rest on reused columns and capitals. Behind the arcades are ranged thirteen cells, a room for the teacher and the entrance iwan. The TDV describes the plan as having three iwans and writes that the building was never fully completed; according to the Culture Portal, the madrasa was begun with two storeys, and the upper floor could not be finished after the death of Çelebi Mehmed. Stand in the middle of the courtyard and think for a moment of the missing upper floor; the building was left half finished by the news of a death. According to the Ministry, the plan resembles the open-courtyard madrasas of the Anatolian Seljuks, and the materials are rubble stone, ashlar and brick. The first museum in Bursa was founded in 1902, in the garden of a school, from ethnographic and archaeological finds gathered in the region; it was officially opened in September 1904 as a branch of the Müze-i Hümayun under Osman Hamdi Bey. In 1929 it became a directorate and took the name Bursa Museum, and in 1930 it moved to the Yeşil Madrasa; the Culture Portal gives 1923 for this move, but we follow the Ministry's date. After repairs in 1955 it reopened in 1956, and when the archaeological collection went to the new building in Kültürpark, it was reorganised in 1975 as the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art.

Walk through the cells in order: among the tiles and ceramics are pieces from İznik and Kütahya, then carved and inlaid woodwork, tombak and metalwork, and Seljuk and Ottoman coins. The collection covers the traditional handicrafts and clothing of the Seljuk, Beylik and Ottoman periods from the thirteenth to the twentieth century. In the garden stand Bursa tombstones and inscriptions dated between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries; the style of the lettering and ornament changes from century to century, so try reading the stones in date order. The courtyard, with the lines of shadow cast by the arcade arches, is the best corner of the museum for photographs; do not use flash at the showcases. The courtyard is also a quiet place to sit and rest between the Yeşil Mosque and the Yeşil Tomb. The mosque and the tomb are not stops on this route and are described in detail in the first-capital route; but when you step out of the door, the tiled body of the Yeşil Tomb is right in front of you. According to the TDV, the kitchen buildings of the imaret were repaired in recent years and are now used as a café; an option for a short break before the climb. The move to the last stop is uphill: the Hünkar Köşkü lies south-west of Yeşil, at Temenyeri on the foot of Uludağ, a climb of a little over a kilometre. According to the Bursa Museums Directorate, bus 37 runs along Atatürk Caddesi to the pavilion; that is the easy way for anyone who does not want the slope. The pavilion is closed on Mondays; if you are walking the route on a Monday, leave this stop for another day.

Source: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, Bursa Türk İslam Eserleri Müzesi; Kültür Portalı, Yeşil Medresesi; TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Yeşilcami Külliyesi.

The pavilion is in the Mollaarap neighbourhood, on Köşk Caddesi; when you come through the garden gate, look first at the building's shuttered facade with its triangular pediment. According to the Bursa Museums Directorate, the pavilion was built in 1844 by Mehmed Salih Paşa, governor of Bursa, as a hunting lodge for the visit of Sultan Abdülmecid, and the building was finished in about 19 days. The Culture Portal gives 1859 as the year of construction; the museum's own page and Wikipedia agree on 1844, and Abdülmecid's stay between 29 June and 2 July 1844 supports that date. The museum page describes the building as the first and only one built in Bursa in the Western style after the Tanzimat; its name then was Kasr-ı Hümayun. The Culture Portal and Wikipedia describe the architecture as two-storey French Empire style; the plastered walls are built on a timber frame, and the building has a guard room and a garage. Abdülaziz stayed here on 18 April 1862 and Mehmed V Reşad on 23 August 1909. In 1922 the pavilion hosted Atatürk and the commanders of the War of Independence for 12 days; Wikipedia writes that at the first visit, on 16 October 1922, the Lausanne documents were discussed with İsmet İnönü and Kazım Karabekir. Atatürk stayed here again during his visits to Bursa in 1925, 1931 and 1935; according to the museum page, he adopted Sabiha Gökçen in this garden in 1925. Over time the pavilion came to be known as Kasr-ı Milli, Cumhuriyet Köşkü and Atatürk Köşkü.

According to Wikipedia it was repaired in 1982-1983; in 1995 the National Palaces and the Metropolitan Municipality restored it, and the pavilion opened as a municipal museum on 29 May 2003. Photographs and phones are forbidden inside, you keep to the carpeted paths and do not touch the objects; since at most 30 visitors are admitted at a time, there may be a short wait at the door at busy hours, so check the current visiting conditions on bursamuze.com. On the ground floor you visit the entrance hall, the reception hall, Atatürk's room, the study, the bedroom of Sabiha and Ülkü, the rest room and the aide's room. The reception hall is entered through the double door opposite the entrance; the pen-work on its walls and ceilings is the finest example of the pavilion's nineteenth-century decoration. In Atatürk's bedroom of about 28 square metres stand the bed with the K&A monogram, the framed photograph of his address to the public and the patent-leather slippers attributed to him. The study is plain: a desk, a velvet resting couch and a tea cup. Go down to the basement; the pool hall, with the small pool in its middle, was used because it stayed cool in summer, and today it is a temporary exhibition space where an early Turkish flag of 1925 bearing the presidential emblem is displayed. The dining room is known as the Lion Room: an oval walnut table, 14 chairs, a ceiling with fruit motifs and the lion figure that turns towards you from whatever angle you look, a trick of the perspective technique. According to the museum page, everything on display belongs to the pavilion itself and was restored in the workshops of Dolmabahçe Palace; the chandeliers are handmade, in the Murano manner and of Bohemian crystal. Wikipedia notes that silicone figures were added in 2015.

Go out into the garden: the wooded area to the north, called Temenna, was where the sultans greeted the people, and the name of the quarter, Temenyeri, comes from it. According to the Culture Portal, the garden looks over the panorama of Bursa, and the face of the fountain in the garden is covered with Kütahya tiles. The open-air exhibition "Bursa'nın Köşkleri" in the garden presents the city's other pavilions. The museum describes the visit as taking 15 to 20 minutes; with the garden, the exhibition and the view, allow 45 minutes. If you have set up the route to finish in the afternoon, the edge of the garden overlooking the plain is the close of the day; the plain you looked at from the Hisar in the morning you now see from the opposite hillside. For the return, bus 37 goes down to Atatürk Caddesi; from there you connect to Heykel and to BursaRay.

Source: Bursa Müzeler, Hünkar Köşkü Müzesi; Kültür Portalı, Hünkar Köşkü; Wikipedia, Hünkar Köşkü.