In 2014 ICOMOS requested that Turkey should “Revise the focus of the nomination” for Bursa, didn’t accept any of the 5 proposed criteria and recommended “deferral”. Facing a stroppy WHC, it was overruled and Bursa became the 8th site converted by the WHC that year from a “Deferral” recommendation to an “Inscription” – and on all the original nominated criteria! We were particularly interested to see what we would make of it all and had an afternoon/evening in which to do so!

Bursa city has a very positive reputation among Turks as a place to live. Known as “Green Bursa” it is set in a fertile valley and also has easy access to ski slopes and the sea. It is the fourth biggest city in Turkey with a population of around 1.8 million and is booming. It was perhaps unfortunate that it was the first WHS of our trip and we were still getting used to the car, the traffic and the culture/history of Turkey. Apart from a 3hr drive (!) across Istanbul the previous evening it was also the first major city we reached. I hadn’t yet got my “Sygic” map app working and also hadn’t yet come to terms with such matters as parking arrangements in Turkey :- You get somewhere close to the town centre, find a small scrap of land signed “Otopark”, pay the guardian around 5TL, give him the car key and let him shuffle all the cars entering and leaving this area to enable the maximum number of cars to be parked there – hoping yours won’t be scratched when you get back! One problem was finding the centre - signage in Turkish towns wasn’t of the best even if one understood it and we hadn’t yet realised that “şehir merkezi” wasn’t the name of a district, but meant “Town Centre”! Yet we managed to see most of the elements in the time we gave it.

The nomination makes much of the fact that the site relates solely to those aspects of Bursa arising from its the early development by the Ottomans (“The Birth of the Ottoman Empire”) after its capture from the Byzantines in 1324 by Orhan Ghazi, son of the founder Osman I (after whom the dynasty was named). He became Sultan in 1326 and the 4 subsequent Sultans take us through to 1421 when Murad II abdicated in favour of his son Mehmed II – i.e a period of almost 100 years after the accession of Orhan. During this period Ottoman Architecture developed from its Seljuk roots and incorporated e.g Byzantine ideas. Thus the “Bursa Period” is a recognised term in the study of Ottoman architecture. The buildings on show in Bursa were largely constructed at the end of this period and therefore reflect the developments made.

To appreciate the site it is necessary to understand 2 Turkish words relating to the social arrangements under which it was created

a. Vakif (or Wakf) – a religious endowment, particularly of a building or plot of land, by an individual which is then held in trust

b. Kullieye - a complex of buildings, centred around a mosque and managed within a single institution, often based on a vakif, and composed of a medrese (religious school), a darussifa (clinic), kitchens, bakery, hammam, other buildings for various charitable services for the community and further annexes” (Wiki). In effect a religious/civic “community centre”

UNESCO has registered 8 separate locations but in practice there are really only 6 as shown on the Nomination File maps marked A – F. The locations divide into 3 categories

a. The so called “Khans Area” with 2 adjacent core locations. One of these is the Orhan Ghazi Kulliye. The other (larger) contains a range of buildings including the Grand Mosque, several Khans and a covered market. This is situated in the very centre of Bursa

b. 4 other “Külliyes”, each is named after a Sultan who built it and (usually?? We didn’t see them all) the Mausoleum of him and his family – So Murad I, Murad II, Bayezid I and Mehmed I. (That of Murad I is divided into 2 core locations because the Bath house is separate). The Kulliyes of Mehmed I in the area of Yesil (= “green”) is walkable from the Khans area and is perhaps the most significant one. Bayazid I is around 3kms further east. 2 more Kulliyes are situated to the West – those of Murad I and II – the former is the furthest out, situated in the suburb of Cekirge, around 7 kms from the centre.

c. The Village of Cumalikizik situated about 12kms east by road

We visited 4 of the 6 separate geographical areas – the Khan area, Cumulakzik village and 2 of the Kulliyes - that of Mehmed I on the basis that it was walkable from the Khan area and seemed the most important architecturally, and that of Murad I which happened to be near our Bursa hotel.!

A brief report on each

a. The Khans area contains 2 mosques and 7 or 8 Khans, It is the bustling heart of the city fronted by a park with fountains and looking out on Ataturk Cadesi. All of the buildings seem to have been rebuilt over the years but the Ulu Camii or Great Mosque is a fine structure dating originally from 1399 - apparently it is particularly famed for the many examples of calligraphy on walls, columns and large plates erected for the purpose. The bazaar areas bustled as everywhere and seemed as big as those of Istanbul and (once upon a time) Aleppo.

b. The Mehmed I Kulliye in Yesil is famed for the Green Mosque and the Green Tomb (the Mausoleum of Mehmed I). These also were rebuilt after the 1855 earthquake – whether that is the reason that the majority of the tiles are blue rather than green I know not! Inside the “Turbe” are the tombs we would get to know so well across Turkey – one large tomb surrounded by a number of smaller ones. Each tomb is covered with a cloth, either plain or with heavy calligraphy, and has a turban in cloth and or stone at the head – an idea we had seen last in saints’ tombs in Pakistan and I wonder if it is a tradition transplanted from Central Asia. As a reminder that these were Ottoman Sultans a large Turkish flag was nearby. One of the complaints ICOMOS had about the Kulliyes, is that many of the original buildings such as kitchens are no longer in place and I also felt that none of the 3 we saw were fully presented as social “complexes” in all their elements including the workaday - but perhaps all this is self evident to Turks visiting the sites - which now had UNESCO signage in Turkish and English, by the way. This one has a mosque, a tomb, a madrasah (now a museum and closed when we were there) and apparently a kitchen - but we never saw that.

c. The Murad I Kulliye. This dates from 1426 and I can’t really say that we gained any further value from seeing this. Again there were a number of buildings in a complex but after seeing the Mosque and the tombs that was about it – the Madrasah and Kitchens are still in use as a community centre apparently.

d. Cumalikizik. The inclusion of this village seemed particularly to upset ICOMOS and, in their recommendations, they asked for its inclusion to be “reconsidered”! The Turkish argument for its inclusion is that this and other villages were set up immediately after the conquest of Bursa and that Turkmen, who had assisted the conquest, were settled in them. They were “Waqf villages” meaning “that (they) belonged forever to a public institution (Complex) and served as a source of income for building the Complexes and the new town. (Their) creation was part of the founding of Bursa as a capital” (Nomin file). A bit tenuous? Whatever - the village is an attractive destination and was busy with Turkish and Arabic speaking tourists when we were there. The village is quite well signed to the north of the main East/West thoroughfare and the road climbs towards the mountains. Cars have to be left at an Otopark as the village itself is pedestrianised, other than to locals. Restoration of buildings was still ongoing as of May 2015 and the village was gradually being turned into a typical “tourist village” of souvenir shops and restaurants with some Pensions and no doubt some summer houses for the wealthy of Bursa. For the moment farming locals still drive their tractors through the streets. The following day we were to drive to Safranbolu, inscribed for its “Ottoman houses” but, whilst the architecture of both is “Ottoman” with its overhanging wooden superstructures etc, they are otherwise very different. Cumalikizik is basically a rural/ agricultural village whilst Safranbolu is very much a town with quite grand houses, Mosques, a Khan and other public buildings etc in its own right.

So, having seen our 4 areas, do we think that ICOMOS was right to propose a deferral? Well – if you read the arguments I suppose that “intellectually” they hold water. Bursa perhaps could indeed have been better presented as an Ottoman “continuity city” through to the 19th C. And perhaps some of those Kulliye don’t really add a great deal, and that village does sit somewhat uncomfortably with the city elements. But, when one sees the ease with which yet another European Vineyard site gains inscription after ticking all the right boxes in its Nomination, one has to question whether the scheme as interpreted by ICOMOS is missing the wood for the trees. Bursa is a fine city, the early years of the Ottoman Empire with their architecture and social institutions are historically important and should be represented. Does it really matter what the detail of the Nomination File says? I am with the WHC on this one!!