Monday, October 29, 2012

Galata Tower ( Galata Kulesi )


 İstanbul'un Galata semtinde bulunan ve şehrin en önemli sembollerinden biri olan 528
yılında inşa edilmiş bir kuledir. Kuleden İstanbul Boğazı, Haliç ve İstanbul, panoramik
olarak izlenebilmektedir.
Galata Kulesi dünyanın en eski kulelerinden biri olup, Bizans İmparatoru Anastasius
tarafından 528 yılında Fener Kulesi olarak inşa ettirilmiştir.  1204 yılındaki 4.
Haçlı Seferi'nde geniş çapta tahrip edilen kule, daha sonra 1348 yılında "İsa Kulesi"
adıyla yığma taşlar kullanılarak Cenevizliler tarafından Galata surlarına ek olarak
yeniden yapılmıştır. 1348 yılında yeniden yapıldığında kentin en büyük binası olmuştur.

 


Galata kulesi 1445-1446 yılları arasında yükseltilmiştir. Kule Türklerin eline geçtikten
sonra hemen her yüzyıl yenilenmiş ve tamir edilmiştir. 16. yüzyılda Kasımpaşa
 tersanelerinde çalıştırılan Hıristiyan harp esirlerinin barınağı olarak kullanılmıştır.
 Sultan III. Murat'ın müsaadesiyle burada müneccim Takiyüddin tarafından bir rasathane
kurulmuş, ancak bu rasathane 1579'da kapatılmıştır.


17. yüzyılın ilk yarısında IV. Murat döneminde Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi,
Okmeydanı'nda rüzgarları kollayıp uçuş talimleri yaptıktan sonra, tahtadan
yaptırdığı kartal kanatlarını sırtına takarak 1638 yılında Galata Kulesi'nden
Üsküdar-Doğancılar'a uçmuştur. Bu uçuş Avrupa'da ilgi ile karşılanmış, İngiltere'de bu
uçuşu gösteren gravürler yapılmıştır.


1717'den itibaren kule yangın gözleme kulesi olarak kullanılmıştır. Yangın, ahalinin
 duyabilmesi için büyük bir davul çalınarak haber verilmekteydi. III. Selim döneminde
 çıkan bir yangında kulenin büyük bölümü yanmıştır. Onarılan kule 1831 yılında başka
 bir yangında yine hasar görmüş ve onarılmıştır. 1875 yılında bir fırtınada külahı devrilmiştir.
 1965'te başlanıp 1967'de bitirilen son onarımla da kulenin bugünkü görünümü sağlanmıştır.


The Galata Tower (Galata Kulesi in Turkish) — called Christea Turris
(the Tower of Christ in Latin) by the Genoese — is a medieval stone tower in the
Galata district of Istanbul, Turkey, just to the north of the Golden Horn. One of the
 city's most striking landmarks, it is a high, cone-capped cylinder that dominates the
skyline and affords a panoramic vista of Old Istanbul and its environs.


The nine-story tower is 66.90 meters tall (62.59 m without the ornament on top,
 51.65 m at the observation deck), and was the city's tallest structure when it was built.
 The elevation at ground level is 35 meters above sea-level. The tower has an external
diameter of 16.45 meters at the base, an 8.95 meters diameter inside, and walls that are
 3.75 meters thick. There is a restaurant and café on its upper floors which command
 a magnificent view of Istanbul and the Bosphorus. Also located on the upper floors is a
 night club which hosts a Turkish show. There are two operating elevators that carry visitors
from the lower level to the upper levels.


The tower was built as Christea Turris (Tower of Christ) in 1348 during an expansion
of the Genoese colony in Constantinople.The Galata Tower was the tallest building in
 Istanbul at 219½ feet (66.9 m) when it was built in 1348. It was the apex of the
 fortifications surrounding the Genoese citadel of Galata. The current tower should
not be confused with the old Tower of Galata, an original Byzantine tower named
 Megalos Pyrgos (English: Great Tower) which controlled the northern end of the massive
sea chain that closed the entrance to the Golden Horn. That tower was on a different site
 and was largely destroyed in 1203, during the Fourth Crusade of 1202–1204.


The upper section of the tower with the conical cap was slightly modified in several
 restorations during the Ottoman period when it was used as an observation tower for
spotting fires. According to the Seyahatname of Ottoman historian and traveller
Evliya Çelebi, in circa 1630-1632, Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi flew as an early intercontinental
 aviator using artificial wings for gliding from this tower over the Bosphorus to the slopes
of Üsküdar on the Anatolian side, nearly six kilometres away. Evliyâ Çelebi also tells of
Hezarfen's brother, Lagari Hasan Çelebi, performing the first flight with a rocket in a
conical cage filled with gunpowder in 1633.



Starting from 1717 the Ottomans began to use the tower for spotting fires in the city.
 In 1794, during the reign of Sultan Selim III, the roof of the tower made of lead and
wood, and the stairs were severely damaged by a fire. Another fire damaged the building
 in 1831, upon which a new restoration work took place.
In 1875, during a storm, the conic roof on the top of the building was destroyed. The tower
 remained without this conic roof for the rest of the Ottoman period. Many years later,
 in 1965-1967, during the Turkish Republic, the original conical cap was restored. During
 this final restoration in the 1960s, the wooden interior of the tower was replaced by a
concrete structure and it was commercialized and opened to the public.


From the top of the tower, the first French panorama painter Pierre Prévost drew in
1818 his "Panorama de Constantinople" which was later exposed in Paris in 1825.
The panorama image shown below is composed of ten photos taken from the Galata
Tower by the photographic firm of Sébah & Joaillier, and is most likely to have been
taken in the 1880s.

Origin Wikipedia....

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