Living Crafts from Suluhan to Hamamönü

Walk down from Ulus metro to Anafartalar Avenue; the stone inn in Hacı Doğan quarter, between Tekneciler Street and Suluhan Street, is the first stop. Hasan Paşa, a statesman of Bayezid II's reign, built it between 1508 and 1511; long known as Hasanpaşa Han, it appears as Suluhan, the inn with water, from 1688. The name is apt: news sources call it the only inn of its day with a fireplace in every room and its own water supply. It has two storeys and two courtyards; the first is square, with 30 rooms below and 32 above, a fountain pavilion and the small Köşk Mosque in the middle; the second held the stables and the bath.

In the Ottoman period coffee and yarn were traded here; in Ankara yarn meant mohair yarn, so the raw material of the spinners you will meet on the slope passed through this inn. After the fire of the late 1920s it fell into ruin and served as a fruit and vegetable market until the 1950s; the Ankara market hall went up opposite in 1937, and in the 1940s a stove-makers' bazaar leaned on its wall. The General Directorate of Foundations restored it to its original form in the 1980s.

Today Suluhan is a bazaar for celebrations: florists, decorators, sellers of baby and birth ornaments, handicraft and gift shops; artificial flowers, wedding favours and henna-night supplies for engagements and weddings are bought here. That is why the craft route begins here: a five-hundred-year-old inn where handmade work is still sold. Walk both courtyards, look down from the upper arcades, pause beside the small mosque. Then go up to Anafartalar and walk a few hundred metres to the foot of Çıkrıkçılar Yokuşu.

Source: Wikipedia, Suluhan; Anadolu Ajansı 2018; Güven Dinçer, İdealkent 2014.

This two-hundred-metre slope leaves Anafartalar Avenue, climbs towards the Castle and ends at the junction of Saraçlar and Salman streets. Its name records a craft: in Ottoman times Ankara goat mohair was spun here on spinning wheels and woven into the cloth called sof. It was part of the Long Bazaar between Ulus and Samanpazarı; the fire of 1916 destroyed the nearby Iplikciler Mosque of 1745 and Canakcilar Mosque of 1732, and the rebuilt bazaar has had conservation projects since 1982. Today more than a thousand traders work here and on the neighbouring streets, mainly in cloth, haberdashery, trousseau goods, henna-night and wedding wear. Traders speak of the slope in the same breath as Mahmutpaşa in Istanbul and Kemeraltı in İzmir.

The coppersmiths' shops and workshops stand on the slope too; where you hear the hammer, you have reached them. Nobody knows when copperwork began in Ankara, but the masters' hallmark has always been hammering: the sheet is shaped over the anvil with hammer and mallet, the surface patterned by engraving and punching, the design drawn on the copper first and worked in with punches the master makes himself. Brass is the second metal. The products are coffee pots, ewers, trays, bowls, cauldrons, mortars and samovars; kitchen pieces are tinned inside, decorative ones are not, so ask. Most masters began as apprentices between fifteen and nineteen and learned in three or four years; today most buyers are visitors and successors are hard to find.

Come early, while traders set out their goods. Watch from the doorway; ask before going in to photograph. A small hand-hammered coffee pot is a real Ankara souvenir that fits in a suitcase. İlhan Berk wrote a poem about this slope, Metin İpek a short story.

Source: Wikipedia; Güven Dinçer, İdealkent 2014; Asena Ertaş, folklor/edebiyat 2014; Sabah; Hürriyet.

From the junction at the top of the slope turn into Salman Street; it runs on towards Koyunpazarı, and Pirinç Han stands between the two streets, on Pirinç Street just below Atpazarı. This is the core of Ankara's antiques trade: in the 1940s the city's oldest antique shop stood at the foot of Çıkrıkçılar Yokuşu, and today the dealers and craft workshops spread through the narrow lanes of Koyunpazarı carry on the same business.

The inn itself is a story in two layers. For the old Pirinç Han the sources disagree between 17th-century records and an endowment deed of 1739; that building, which sheltered small caravans, was demolished with its mosque in the 1930s and a primary school was built on the site. The Pirinç Han you visit today is an old timber mansion restored as an inn in 1985: three storeys around a courtyard, timber frame with mud-brick infill. It is spoken of as the city's first wooden inn. The entrance wall carries the poem "Han Duvarları" by Faruk Nafiz Çamlıbel; before reading the poem, read the building, since the wooden galleries looking onto the courtyard are a small-scale lesson in the traditional inn plan.

The shops sell antiques and handmade jewellery. Two rules for buying: ask the price and bargain, but if you are buying something old, also ask its period and whether it has been repaired. The courtyard is a good place to sit and watch the crowd flowing in from the surrounding lanes. From here you step out onto Koyunpazarı Street and begin the climb.

Source: Wikipedia, Pirinç Han (Ankara); Güven Dinçer, İdealkent 2014; Yeni Ankara.

Koyunpazarı Street is a cobbled, steep, one-way slope climbing from Samanpazarı to the main gate of the Castle. Its name, like the square's, survives from the market layout of Ottoman Ankara. The city had some thirty bazaars and market places, and Atpazarı, the horse market, was among the best known. Even in the early Republic the markets ran up towards the Castle in order: Arabapazarı, Odunpazarı, Samanpazarı, Koyunpazarı, Atpazarı and, in front of the Castle, Ekinpazarı. Koyunpazarı held the saddlers' and shoemakers' bazaar; where harness and footwear were once made, antique dealers and craft workshops now trade.

Up the slope, in Koyunpazarı, stands Ahi Elvan Mosque, built at the end of the 14th century by an Ahi family and carried on twelve timber columns. This route does not take you inside, but passing its door is a reminder of the link between the craft brotherhood and these streets: the Ahis were the organisation that gave the tradesmen here their master, journeyman and apprentice order and their code of conduct. Nearby, in the Samanpazarı quarter, is the 13th-century Aslanhane Mosque.

The slope ends at Atpazarı, the small square before the Castle gate. Facing you are two inns of the 16th and 17th centuries, Çengelhan and Çukurhan, one a museum, the other a lodging house. They belong to another route; stand in the square and look at three things: the stone mass of the gate, the courtyard doors of the inns, the streets pouring downhill. Turn back without entering the Castle, which this route does not cover. On the way down glance at the open workshops; the best find is often in a side lane, not on the main street.

Source: Güven Dinçer, İdealkent 2014; TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Yeni Ankara.

Walk down Koyunpazarı from Atpazarı and across Samanpazarı square; Hamamönü is about a kilometre further on. The stop here is not the whole quarter but the Art Street that Altındağ Municipality created on Tanış Street. Twenty-two traditional Ankara houses were restored faithfully and have served as an art centre since 2010; in each house the upper floor is a studio and the ground floor a gallery. The houses are allocated to artists who work in traditional and contemporary arts side by side. Looking in through the doors you will find studios for paper marbling, calligraphy, tile painting, stained glass, leatherwork, felt, silver and jewellery, and painting; the artists produce here, sell here and teach techniques that are otherwise fading.

The logic of the route turns around at this point. In the bazaars on the Ulus side, craft was goods made for the market; here the same handwork continues as art and as teaching. Do not hesitate to talk to someone working in a studio, most are happy to explain the technique; if you are asking about courses, check the municipality's page for the current programme. If you want to buy, ask for pieces that are the artist's own work.

The rest of Hamamönü, its restored streets of 19th-century Ottoman houses, is not covered here; the food and photography routes deal with it separately. The Art Street is busy at weekends, when the shops and studios are at their fullest; come on a weekday if you prefer it quiet. The walk ends here; EGO buses run from Hamamönü towards Ulus and Kızılay, and the Ankaray and metro are a short walk away.

Source: Altındağ Belediyesi, Hamamönü Sanat Sokağı.