"Birdhouses" on the walls of ancient mosques: Why real palaces were built for birds

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Ottoman Empire, as a rule, is associated primarily with the history of a powerful formidable state, loud victories, the cruelties of the Janissaries and the intrigues of the harems. But to our times, extremely touching and lovely evidence of that era has survived when the skill of Ottoman architects became the service of ordinary birds, of which a great many have always lived in those parts.

Birdhouses, bird palaces, dovecotes

The Ottoman Empire arose at the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries and existed for more than six centuries. This period of Turkish history left behind beautiful architectural monuments, and many of them were supplemented and decorated with small bird houses.

They can be found all over Turkey - structures on the outside of the walls of ancient buildings. From rather modest and practical to real palaces, on a variety of buildings - schools and libraries, mosques and tombs, hotels and ordinary residential buildings.

The attitude to birds has always been special here, for the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire they symbolized goodness and good luck, the padishahs arranged bird yards in their palaces. Sultan Abdulaziz, who was also very fond of birds, was taken as a gift from all over the world. Even now, more than a dozen different species of birds live in the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul - peacocks, canaries, parrots, pheasants. For the Turks, bird singing is akin to a reminder of eternal life, hence the touching attention and care for the winged singers.

Birds live in these southern regions all year round, and although the Turkish winter is much milder than in the north, the cold and bad weather are a test for the birds for several weeks. The houses built on the walls made it possible to survive the warm winter, and in other seasons they served as a refuge for birds. There was also a practical sense - the houses protected the walls from bird droppings, and the courtyard, in the absence of nests spontaneously arising under the roof, was cleaner.

How did the tradition of creating bird palaces come about?

The first such "birdhouses", apparently, were built even before the beginning of Ottoman rule, during the time of the Seljuks. In any case, the buildings of that period already contained bird houses on the outer walls - for example, the Shifaye madrasah in the city of Sivas, erected in 1217.

Ottoman architecture dates back to the 15th - 16th centuries, it arose in Bursa and Edirne under the influence of both the Seljuk traditions and the heritage of Byzantine, Armenian and Iranian architects. In the Ottoman period, a new style of Islamic architecture was created - sophisticated, harmonious, where aesthetics came to the fore. Therefore, the bird houses were supposed to look like real luxurious palaces.

The most complex and intricate examples of bird palaces were distinguished by a vast interior space, as well as a large number of different elements: the houses had balconies, several platforms for take-off and return, columns, domes. Often in such a palace quite a lot of birds, several families could be accommodated at the same time - however, when choosing a shelter, they were hardly guided by aesthetic motives - rather, by the practical benefits that the "birdhouses" carried.

Ottoman Bird Care

Most often, sparrows, swallows, finches and pigeons settled in such houses. The houses were required to be placed on the sunny side of the building, where there were no strong winds, high enough to keep the birds safe from cats. Sometimes bird houses were provided for feeders, and bird lovers, of which there were a great many among the Ottomans, could feed their feathered wards. Brick, stone and mortar were used to build a birdhouse; the houses that were built of wood have not survived to this day.

One of the oldest bird houses is located on the Buyukcekmece Bridge in Istanbul, and some of the most magnificent are on the walls of the New Valide Mosque (Yeni Valide). Remarkable examples of architecture in miniature can be found in the mosques of Uskudar.

Until the 18th century, bird palaces were built into the facade and almost did not protrude outward, and then real pavilions began to appear on the walls of buildings - when creating birdhouses, the architects took into account all the features of the building's appearance, trying to give it the most complete and harmonious look. Houses could be built immediately, when the main building was erected, or they were added later.

And if many generations of birds did not even suspect and still do not suspect that they use the monuments of Islamic architecture for housing, then for tourists who value history these "palaces" become an additional pretty feature in their appearance. ancient east.