Abstract:

It is observed that many castle settlements, which have been the area of settlement since early periods in Anatolia, consist of narrow streets today. In order to use these narrow streets more comfortably, the street corners are chamfered in order to see the people coming from the side street, not at right angles. Corner chamfers situated on street corners facilitate the passage of both people and horse-drawn carriages in daily use, while at the same time preventing structures from being destroyed to a certain extent. These chamfered corners, which facilitate urban transportation, were not left plain and were tried to be animated with different ornamental elements by pursuing aesthetic concerns. In this study, the corner chamfers detected on street corners and certain corners of residences and mosques in Antalya Kaleiçi, which has hosted many civilizations from the ancient period to the present, will be classified according to the ornament repertoire and will be tried to be introduced. The fact that there has not been a comprehensive study on the corner chamfers, which is the subject of the study, has been one of the main factors that impelled us to such a study. For this purpose, detection studies have been carried out in Antalya Kaleiçi, which consists of 4 districts (Kılıçarslan, Selçuk, Tuzcular and Barbaros District) and 44 streets. In the field study, it was determined that a total of 78 corners were chamfered. It is understood that decoration elements in different forms were included in the samples determined. Depending on this decoration program, the chamfered corners are divided into seven different groups. These decorations, which are mostly found on the peaks of the chamfers, were evaluated by dividing them into seven main types and six sub-types within themselves, including herbal, geometric, muqarnas, figured, inscribed moldings and saw-topped tops. It is highly possible to encounter with similar cases in many Anatolian cities. When the distribution of these samples throughout Anatolia is examined, the corner decoration in Antalya Kaleiçi is understood not to bear an original and local style. Almost all the decorative surfaces are observed at the residential spaces. As they have changed hands several times, it is too tough to offer who are their primary holders and when they were actually constructed. The comparison of the cases for corner decoration in Antalya with those throughout Anatolia reveals that such decorative tools are executed on many houses dated to 19th – 20th centuries. Thus, in the light of that many houses were burnt down by Great Fire in the late 19th century in Kaleiçi and they were accordingly repaired, and the decorative compositions on the chamfered corners, it is thought of these decorative executions to have been made in the late 19th century and early 20th century.