Safranbolu: An encounter with the past

by Capt. Piers STERN

What do we know of life in Ottoman times? The adjective summons images of luxuriating sultans and scimitar-wielding janissaries. But these tell us nothing of the everyday life of people like us. You can obtain a more balanced view by reading İrfan Orga’s Portrait of a Turkish Family - or by visiting Safranbolu, which at least has the advantage that it does not go out of print. We are in the well-preserved market town, some 240km north of Ankara, as part of DİPLOMAT’s series of articles on UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Turkey. Let us start our journey where many ended theirs, at the old cemetery on Hıdırlık Hill…

I had walked up there because I thought it would be a good idea to begin with a bird’s eye view of the town. While gazing afar, however, I stumbled against a gravestone, and thus made the acquaintance – so to speak – of Bey-Zade Hasan Ali, who died in 1295 of the Hijra (1876 AD). It was a modest, middle-class gravestone, with a fez on it. It gave Hasan’s name, rank of major, death date, and the following lines in Persian: “Hasan quaffed the cup of death from the hand of fate, water of both worlds.”

A bird’s eye view

Surveying the town from Hıdırlık Hill one finds a prospect to the north-west of one of the two rocky valleys in which the town lies. This smaller valley cradles most of the town, with the ‘hamam’ (bathhouse), a series of mosques, and the solidly-built Cinci Inn (1645), where merchants and their wares could find shelter before the advent of truckers’ motels. Below the market were formerly leatherworkers and coppersmiths’ workshops, and, mercifully downstream and in a ravine, the tanneries. In spite of its name, the town’s income was more consistently derived, not from “safran” (saffron flowers), as from the less fragrant business of leather-making.

On either side of this valley are the narrow streets and projecting timber-frame and clay Turkish houses which have earned Safranbolu its status as World Heritage Site. Kıranköy village, in the larger valley, was formerly the Greek area. Now it is the modern town centre of Safranbolu. I was told that the stone ground floor of the houses was the work of Greek masons, while the upper floors were built by Turkish carpenters, but this presupposes a degree of co-operation for which I would need stronger evidence.

Above Kıranköy is the upper town, called Bağlar. Almost every family living in the lower town would also have a house higher up where they would spend the hot summer months. Prime Minister Erdoğan likes Bağlar enough to stay there every year. I would add my recommendation, and suggest a bracing walk (7.5 km) – drive if you must – further up the stunning Tokatlı Gorge until you reach the ancient İncekaya Aqueduct, which was rebuilt by another Prime Minister, İzzet Mehmet Paşa (Grand Vizier in 1794). The aqueduct is 116-metre long by 1.5-metre wide and it supplies the ornate drinking fountains of Safranbolu.

Lives and lifestyles

I am not a superstitious man, but it is clear that meeting Hasan Ali again during my visit to the Kaymakamlar House, one of several Safranbolu town houses open to the public, unsettled me. The house is just below Hıdırlık Hill. A typical Safranbolu house, it is on three floors, with a selamlık (reception rooms) on the first floor, and a separate haremlik (women’s quarters). I admit that I felt most at home in the sturdy fodder and stables area which makes up the ground floor, called the “hayat”.

I had inspected the beautiful pine and walnut latticework of the ceilings in the haremlik, and the yüklük built-in cupboards for storing bedding during the day, when my eyes fell on a glass cabinet with Ottoman school books. One was recognisably a maths text book, another was an edition of a poem for memorizing Arabic grammar. And there he was, in smudged ink on its inside cover: Bey-Zade Hasan Ali’s book, Safranbolu Süleyman Paşa School.

To my frustration I found that Hasan Ali kept recurring in my thoughts. The next house I visited was the Kileciler House. It has walls painted with flowers and calligraphic mottos saying “Patriotism is a religious duty”, and “Cleanliness is part of faith”. There is a folklore display with waxwork bridesmaids in embroidered dresses painting their hands with henna, and male guests sit in another room drinking Turkish coffee. I found myself thinking: “Could that young man in the fez be Hasan Ali?”

Water works

One feature of the Safranbolu house style is a large pool in the middle of the reception room. Wide and deep enough to swim in, they were in fact intended for keeping the room cool. A good example is in the Havuzlu Konak Hotel, which welcomes visitors. I am aware the Kileciler House and other houses have been restored by the Ministry of Culture in a way which respects the original methods and materials. Mümtazlar House, which unusually was designed by a woman, Nefise Hanım, has not been restored but is in good condition. However, in the case of some hotels I am obliged to make a side-swipe against that practice of demolition and replacement which passes for “restoration”. I had rather see no restoration at all than concrete in situ replicas.

By the way, Kileciler House has a loo with “100” above the door, which still today means water closet in Turkish slang. The Oxford Dictionary says that the origin of “loo” is unknown, but perhaps there is a connection? On that subject, I have pointed out that the Akçasu stream runs through Safranbolu in a narrow ravine. Under the market the ravine is hidden in a culvert, but you can see how deep it is if you ask directions to the loo by the Ironmongers’ Market.

Tourist attractions

A visit to Safranbolu is above all a visit to the town as a whole: its houses, open spaces, markets and public buildings. In the centre of town there are three mosques. Two are provincial-looking, the Köprülü Mehmet Paşa and Kazdağlıoğlu Mosques, but the İzzet Mehmet Paşa Mosque, given to the town by the Grand Vizier, is a clear statement of Istanbul elegance. Apparently İzzet Paşa lost his job when the Ottoman army ceded Egypt to Napoleon in 1797–1798.

The town attracts chiefly Turkish tourists, who often combine their visit with a trip to the Black Sea town of Amasra. This means there are some fine restaurants, as well as many cafés and kebab shops. There is also no shortage of the things tourists feel obliged to buy, from fridge magnets in the shape of Ottoman houses to those chewy sweets with walnuts which are supposed to be a local speciality (where are they not?).

On Castle Hill

Such trinkets are not for me. I was enjoying a pipe on Kale (Castle) Hill, watching builders working on the pretty old town hall, which is being converted into a museum. I got into conversation with an old couple, who had initially asked me whether I was Danish. The old lady became rather chatty when I gave a negative answer, and she had much to say about the old days. She was telling me how the women of the neighbourhood would get together to make preserves in preparation for the winter, when I saw him.

It was just a fleeting glimpse of a man in the window of the gutted town hall. A man in a fez. At the same instant I had the strong sensation that it was Hasan Ali. I turned in astonishment to the old lady, but she was gone.

Bath times

It had been a long day, and visiting Safranbolu can involve quite a lot of walking in the sun. There is nothing better to calm the nerves than a visit to the 14^th-century Cinci Hamam for a Turkish bath. I was not disappointed. Half an hour later I was leaning back in the ‘sıcaklık’ (hot room), languidly watching the ‘tellak’ (bath attendant) rubbing down a customer with a ‘kese’ (flannel). There was something about this corpulent figure which reassured me. His type is as old as the very existence of bathhouses. As I recall, in ancient times the parabalani at the Roman baths were tough, no nonsense types. This man and I were one of a kind. I forgot all about the day’s little excitements.

( DIPLOMAT  -  March 2006  -  Ankara )