İspir
| İspir | ||||
|
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| Basic data | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province (il) : | Erzurum | |||
| Coordinates : | 40 ° 29 ′ N , 41 ° 0 ′ E | |||
| Residents : | 6,784 (2008) | |||
| Telephone code : | (+90) 442 | |||
| Postal code : | 25900 | |||
| License plate : | 25th | |||
| Structure and administration (status: 2009) | ||||
| Mayor : | Osman Çakır ( AKP ) | |||
| Website: | ||||
| İspir district | ||||
| Residents : | 17,622 (2008) | |||
| Surface: | 2,012 km² | |||
| Population density : | 9 inhabitants per km² | |||
| Kaymakam : | Hüseyin Engin Sarıibrahim | |||
| Website (Kaymakam): | ||||
İspir ( Georgian სპერი Speri; Armenian Սպեր Sber or Sper) is a city and at the same time the administrative center of the district of the same name in the province of Erzurum in northeastern Turkey . The small town has 6,784 inhabitants, 17,622 people live in the district (as of 2008).
location
The district of İspir is located in the northwest of the province of Erzurum, it borders on the province of Rize in the north, on the province of Artvin in the east and on the province of Bayburt in the west .
The southern foothills of the Kaçkar Dağları , a mountain range that runs parallel to the Black Sea coast , descend steeply in places to the Çoruh valley , on the right bank of which the city of İspir lies at an altitude of 1230 meters, with folds and rocky mountains covered with just a thin grass cover up to a 3060 meter high peak a few kilometers north of the city. İspir is connected to Trabzon and Rize on the Black Sea by a mountain road (pass height 2600 meters), which meets the E 10 in İyidere . This winding road continues south to Erzurum . A road runs across it in the valley of the Çoruh from Bayburt in the southwest via Yusufeli to Artvin in the northeast.
The 79-kilometer section of road between İspir and Yusufeli is currently (as of the end of 2011) difficult to pass due to the complex construction of a new route high above the river bed. Shortly before Yusufeli it passes Dörtkilise , a church from the 10th century. In this section of the valley there were some smaller castles, most of which only consisted of a tower and possibly originate from Georgian times before the conquest by the Ottomans in the 16th century. Halfway from one of these fortresses (Kaleifisrik?) There is still a multi-storey central building, ancillary building and an outer wall.
history
In Persian times İspir was called Pharangion. In Strabon's work Geographica the place is called Hyspirátis. Another variant of the name is sper.
The castle on the western outskirts was probably built during the rule of the Mongolian Ilchane dynasty in the 12th / 13th centuries. Century erected. There is no inscription on the castle for this assumption. There are no signs of fortification of the residential area; the castle hill itself is too small, so that no larger residential area could have existed within the walls. In the 16th century, Suleyman the Magnificent had the castle restored.
Cityscape
The castle sits enthroned on a ledge above the river, below the road behind the bus station leads over a bridge to the town center further east. There are shops for the residents of the agricultural settlements in the area, several restaurants and a large hotel.
Castle
The outer walls, partially preserved over large sections, follow the edge of the rocky hill in an irregular oval. At the south-west corner a narrow piece of the outer wall protrudes far over the steep slope. This bulge and parts of the straight outer wall on the west side have been preserved. A second wall surrounded the inner area of the facility. On the south side there is a small, almost square mosque that has been restored and is still in use. The mosque and the minaret on its southwest corner form the core of the preserved castle walls, which is visible from afar. The round minaret has disappeared from half of its original height, instead it was supplemented by an octagonal shaft that ends in a narrow brick attachment. The minaret and mosque could have been designed for a case of defense, but there are no loopholes on the building, which has been changed several times. The flat roof of the mosque's prayer room is surmounted off-center by an eight-sided truncated cone roof over an octagonal drum . The inner defensive wall on both sides of the mosque was preserved in full.
On the inner wall opposite the mosque is the ruin of a church, from the east side of which a semicircular wide apse with two side rooms, also semicircular, protrudes. Remnants of pillar foundations inside are no longer present, but it is assumed that it was a three-aisled basilica . The narthex , which was added later on the west gable, is still almost at its original height, but both longitudinal walls are only one to two meters high.
Personalities
- Recep Akdağ - politician
- Cemaleddin Kaplan - founder of the Caliphate State Organization
literature
- Thomas Alexander Sinclair: Eastern Turkey: An Architectural and Archaeological Survey. Vol. II. The Pindar Press, London 1989, pp. 263-268
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Turkish Institute for Statistics ( Memento from December 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), accessed November 11, 2009
- ↑ Ispir, Turkey page. fallingrain.com
- ^ Sinclair, p. 268
- ^ Robert W. Edwards: The Vale of Kola: A Final Preliminary Report on the Marchlands of Northeast Turkey. Dumbarton Oaks Papers 42, 1988
- ↑ Lt. Information sign at the castle
- ^ Sinclair, pp. 265-267
