97-104

The so-called “türbe (tomb) of Ahmed Beg Evrenosoglu” at Giannitsa

• Ανδρουδής, Πασχάλης

The massive two-storied domed building of Giannitsa, misidentified as the “türbe (mausoleum) of Ahmed Beg Evrenosoglu” (Gazi Evrenos’s grandson), rather appears to be a sibyân mekteb (primary ottoman school).The building has a square ground plan (ca 8.00 m.), with its dome set on an octagonal pseudo-tympanum. The two floors do not inter-communicate. The ground floor has two arched openings on the north and south walls, which were later blocked.The access to the upper floor was gained through an external wooden staircase in the north wall which was leading to a wide entrance doorway at the northwest corner. Each wall has two rows of pointed-arched windows. The lower windows are larger, with marble frames. When the building was used as a residence, various openings were blocked and the upper floor was divided into small rooms. The existence of a mihrab on the upper storey, indicates the use of that space as a hall for prayer. The outer faces of the walls of the structure were built according to the system of byzantine-style cloisonné masonry, that to say of cut, yellowish porous stones, surrounded on all four sides by a layer of brick, with horizontal bricks at top and bottom and vertical bricks of the two short sides.If we accept Kiel’s dating (on the basis of building materials used and proportions) of the structure to the second half of the 15th century, in conjunction with Ay- verdi’s identification of it as a mekteb, it becomes possible to identify it with one of the 15th century sibyân mektebs named as existing in the city of Yenice-i Vardar by Evliya Çelebi in 1668. The newly published çecere (genealogical tree) of the late 17th century, as well as the account of Evliya about the place where the türbe of Ahmed Beg Evrenosoglu was built, leave no doubt about the identification of our building with one of these mektebs.

• History and Archaeology
• Arts

• Αρχαιολογία
• Τέχνη

Τουρκοκρατία, Γιαννιτσά, συνέδρια , οθωμανική αρχιτεκτονική

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