A Lost Architectural Heritage: Ankara Municipal Building

Abstract

The municipality activities that began with the establishment of the “Şehremaneti” in 1854 in the Ottoman Empire, had undergone many changes with the laws enacted until the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey and consisted of organizations spreading all over the provinces of the Empire. The Sixth District (Altıncı Daire-i Belediye), established in 1857, set an example to provincial municipalities which became widespread immediately after the enactment of the “Tuna (Danube) Provincial Regulation” (Tuna Vilayeti Nizamnamesi) in 1864. Among the municipal organizations in question, the existence of the Ankara municipality from as early as 1866 is known. With the establishment of the Republic of Turkey and Ankara becoming the capital city, the municipality of Ankara was transformed into the Istanbul-based Şehremaneti in 1924. The municipality of Ankara, which had served as “Şehremaneti” until the enactment of the Municipality Law of 1930, was established to fulfill the physical needs of the capital. The subject of this paper is the Ankara municipality building which is not extant today and the archive documents related to the building. The significance of the Ankara Municipality Building is increasing as it is the only building among the Ottoman municipal buildings in Anatolia of which the original plan scheme survived until today. Moreover, the old photographs of the building enable us to ascertain the architectural character of the structure and to evaluate the structure within the architectural orientation of its period.

Keywords

• municipality
• architecture
• municipality buildings
• public buildings
• ankara municipality