The Use of Water Features in the Palace Landscapes of the Late Ottoman Era

Year 2017, Volume: 7 Issue: 15, 49 - 59, 30.06.2017

Parisa Göker

https://doi.org/10.16950/inustd.305801

Abstract

Despite palaces reflect the cultural characteristics of their
period they also reflect the life styles of people who lived in these sites and
the artistic properties and construction techniques of the period. Garden
culture has emerged as an outcome of human-nature relationships and changed and
developed throughout history with the geographical, historical and
socio-economic conditions of each period.

Water features have always appeared as crucial design components in Turkish
gardens. It is remarkable that fountains and dispensers, designed for meeting
water utilization need, were also used for sound and cooling purposes. Water in
Turkish gardens emerged as rich forms including dispensers, water pots and
stagnant and running water. Pools were in the shapes of foursquare, rectangular
or square starting from early Ottoman Period until the 18^th century
and subsequently, round and curvilinear-shaped pools took their place. Pool
interiors were brightened by various means starting from the 18^th
century and for this purpose, islands, grotto made of artificial rocks,
waterfalls and passages in the form of bridges were built in the middle.
However, fountains and dispensers have been significant water features in every
period.

In this research, water
features (pools, fountains, dispensers, waterfalls and grottos) situated in Yildiz
Palace Gardens, erected as the final premises of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan
II Abdulhamid and in Beylerbeyi Palace Gardens, constructed by Sultan Abdulaziz
as a summer sea-side palace, will be scrutinized. Design and structural
characteristics of water features that reached today and are situated in the
palace gardens will be discussed based on the collected data and suggestions
will be made for the current preservation issues.   

Keywords

Palace gardens, Ottoman Era, use of water

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