Top Döküm Binaları (Tophane-i Amire) ve Onarımları

Abstract

Guns had proved to be very effective in the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 AD. This is the reason why Sultan Mehmed the Second, also named briefly “Fatih” (The Conqueror) had built these gunfoundries directly after the conquest of the city, out of the Genoese city walls in front of the Galata Gate. The first foundry had to be extended at the end of the XV. Century during the reign of Sultan Bayezid the Second. Only 20 years after this extension, in the time of Sultan Süleyman the First, known as “Süleyman the Magnificient”, the foundries could not meet the requirements of the Empire any longer. Only two foundry buildings remained from the whole complex to our days. The large building with a row of five domes and two aisles covered with barrel-vaults is dated back to the XVIII. Century. The domes rest on arches and pendentives supported by eight columns. The smaller building having a square plan had been built by the “Conqueror”, in the middle of the XV. Century. It has a single dome as a roof, again with a lantern at its apex. The restoration of the existing buildings took place in 1958-1959 and in the years from 1973 to 1984. The buildings were used as “Gun Museum” until they were left to Mimar Sinan University in 1992. The rearrangement of the interior was carried out by the specialists of the University. Since 1998 the buildings are in use as “Cultural And Exhibition Center of Mimar Sinan University”.