Birdhouses in Turkey
Introduction
Birdhouses in Turkey – In Turkey, birdhouses are part of the collective past, going as far back as the Ottoman times. During the empire, architects built homes mostly for small birds such as sparrows on the side of mosques and stone buildings that would shelter them from the elements and provide a nesting area. The Ottomans established foundations (Wakif) for helping street dogs to find food, birds to drink water on hot days, storks to be treated when they are injured, wolves to be fed with meat or wounded horses to receive treatment. They built birdhouses on the facades of mosques, madrasahs or palaces that had sunlight and no wind, at a height that people couldn’t reach. They also placed small plates on graves from which birds could drink water. In the past, more people had a reputation for bird loving. There were many families feeding birds at home. Children were treating them as if they were family. More or less, birds helped people to cure their loneliness. Storks, pigeons, sparrows and swallows used to fearlessly make their nests on rooftops or chimneys of any building. Located in the western city of Bursa, the “Gurabahane-i Laklakan” (The Home for Homeless Storks), which still stands, was built to treat wounded storks centuries ago.
Bird houses are man’s humble offering to his winged, feathered friends, and one of the oldest and most important expressions of the love of and compassion for animals. The history of houses built for birds like sparrows, finches and swallows goes back a long way. Some of these tiny dwellings, whose numbers proliferated in parallel with the development of classical Ottoman architecture in the 15th century, indicate that they were being built, albeit on a smaller scale, already in the pre-Ottoman period. The purpose of these charming bird houses, which the Turks continued to build up to the 19th century, is to provide refuge to birds, who range freely through the skies but are consequently lonely to the same degree, and to protect them from harsh weather conditions. Very few of the bird houses which are among the important examples of our cultural and artistic heritage have survived until today. It is believed that the bird houses are unique and valuable field of artistic production which needs to be protected and sustained after being restructured. Ceramic creates a valid area for the applications in this sense with its ease of shaping and getting resistance by being baked. An emphasis is made on the importance of realizing bird houses by modern artists of ceramics with contemporary applications and unique designs. Today some craftsmen attempt to reinterpret the bird houses to maintain our rich cultural heritage with material like stone, wood and clay. Clay is more important than the other material with its comfort in shaping.
A Gem of Civilian Architecture
There are many different types of bird houses. While the first birdhouses tended to be simple, in the 18th century they were transformed into structures of comfort exhibiting a refined aesthetic sense. But aesthetics isn’t everything of course. All birdhouses have to meet certain standards, the most important of which is to ensure that birds feel safe inside them. What would be the point, for example, of building a bird house in a place accessible to a cat? Their houses need to be constructed on the sunny side of buildings, in a place that is not exposed to strong winds. One of the most beautiful examples of civilian architecture, bird houses are the center of attraction on any building. Some have been added following construction, others built in at the start. We encounter them everywhere–on mosques, madrasas, libraries, houses, inns, baths, tombs, bridges, churches, synagogues, and even palaces, in short, in every place that has been touched by human hands. Birdhouses fall into two groups. The first group consists of those built specially into the facade of the building in the form of either a single aperture or several side by side, in other words, structures that do not extend far beyond the façade.
Those on the Suleymaniye Mosque, the New Mosque (Yeni Cami) and Buyukcekmece Bridge in Istanbul are examples of this kind. There are also bird houses that project out from the facade of the building, most of which were built in the 18th century. More than houses, these are highly ornamental, elegant dwellings reminiscent of palaces or pavilions. Indeed, some of them even have feeding and water troughs for finches and sparrows, runways for landing and take-off, and even balconies where the birds can venture out and survey their surroundings. Among the loveliest examples of these houses, which are the product of delicate workmanship, are the Yeni Valide, the Ayazma and Selimiye mosques at Uskudar, and the building in the inner courtyard of the Darphane at Topkapi Palace. Other important buildings with bird houses in Istanbul include: the Feyzullah Efendi and Seyyid Hasan Pasha Madrasas, the tomb of Mustafa III, Cukurcesme Han, and the Ahrida Synagogue in Balat. Bricks, tiles, stone and mortar are the building materials of bird houses. Unfortunately those that were made of wood have not survived.
Men’s Curiosity
Man has always great curiosity and interest in birds and flying creatures throughout the history. The reason of this of course the flying action. The ability of birds to resist gravity and fly freely caused them to be regarded as the closest creatures to God in many cultures. Therefore, many societies attributed a divine meaning to birds. Man feared of some bird species but generally identified them with meanings like power, peace, freedom and wisdom. That’s why birds have been liked, respected and protected. Birds have been mentioned in tales, songs, poems, pictures and sculpture namely in written and verbal cultural productions. “Sometimes a pigeon with an olive branch it its mouth heralded the end of a typhoon, sometimes a pair of crane brought news from the beloved
Another important point with birds which drew the attention of man is the migration. Birds migration has always been an interest of man, especially scientists. Human beings have always been impressed by the shapes, movements, organs, flying skills, migration, geometrical shape of eggs, webbed feet of water birds, sharp cutting claws of predatory birds, color and shape of their feathers, voices and many other features of birds. This interaction caused the creation of strong bonds between birds and men and therefore birds have always been an important part of the human life. The meaning of birds for men has been reflected in the scientific and artistic works focusing on birds of different times, different societies and different fields. Birds have always been an indispensable part of human life. Read more about birdwatching and birding activities in Turkey.
Birds have left deep traces in the history of culture and remained as a decisive element in art which is one of the most important expressions of man. It is remarkable that almost in every society there are various folk stories, mythological heroes, fairy tales, genesis legends, symbolic narrations and religious motives about birds. In addition, bird figure has been handled in different times and in different branches of art sometimes as a subject, sometimes as plastic element or an abstraction, as an instant image or a stylized shape. In short, it has always found an important place in all fields of art
Birds and Birdhouses in Turkish culture
Although the time and way of its origin is not known, there is a production about birds in the Turkish culture and architecture not witnessed in any other geography. Birds have been regarded holy and auspicial according to ancient beliefs in the Turkish culture. For example, it is believed that the doves represent loyalty and love, that pigeons are the symbols of peace and loyalty to family in the Islam faith, that the swallows protect the houses they nest in from fire, that birds nesting near a house bring abundance. There are also beliefs that breaking down birds’ nests would bring misfortune to the concerned person. It would be appropriate to consider that these beliefs are the basis of actions in the places where Turks live like allocating areas for birds and assisting them in making their nests.
In this framework, some parts of the structures in the Ottoman architecture were allocated to birds, bird houses and palaces were built for their shelter and small but eye-catching bird pools were constructed. Bird houses which were constructed in an artistic and aesthetic approach were also the basis for structuring an architectural element in the Turkish culture. The earliest examples of the bird houses were found in the 14th century and became very popular in the 18th century
On the other side, birds, particularly pigeons, were the regular guests of mosques. Muslims observing prayers at the mosque used to feed these birds and the mosque courtyards were surrounded by birds. A special element in Ottoman-era mosque architecture, gracious birdhouses have a unique place. These small houses helped to provide birds with shelter and prevented bird droppings from polluting and corroding mosque walls. From a religious perspective, it was believed that if a person builds a bird house, he gains good deeds because the birds find shelter there. The birdhouses were designed to shelter any bird flying freely around such as sparrows, wisecracks, swallows, pigeons and storks. A small nest carved into the walls is actually an architectural masterpiece. Birdhouses also have other names given to them by the public such as “kuş köşkü” (bird pavilions), “güvercinlik” (dovecots) and “serçe saray” (sparrow palace). They can be seen not only at mosques, but also in inns, libraries, madrasahs, schools, aqueducts, fountains and even on walls. By doing so, locals from every age group and social class were infused with love and mercy for animals. During the Ottoman era, functionality and aesthetics were both important while creating. The birdhouses were built using very elaborate techniques. There were either one-story and one-section houses or multiple-story and multiple-section houses. Among those that were built as multi-story, there were even some birdhouses that were built in the shape of a palace or mosque. There were two steps for building birdhouses. The first one was carving the wall and the second was assembling it to the wall. With elaborate door and window details, the houses were crowned with a roof, dome and vault.
Interesting examples of the bird palaces can be seen in provinces other than Istanbul like Doğu Beyazıt, Tokat, Amasya, Kayseri, Niğde, Antakya, İzmir and Tekirdağ. “Birdhouses can be divided into two groups in terms of their way of construction and architectural composition. The birdhouses in the first group are several individual or adjacent small holes specifically left between the cladding of the masonry buildings. These can be resembled to the caves carved from rock where ancient people used to live. Usually they don’t make a projection in the frontage. The best examples of this group are seen in the Süleymaniye and New Mosques in İstanbul. The birdhouses in the second group are like projected chambers and look like single floor villas projecting like bay window, frontage decorated with arched windows, top covered with roof or small domes.
When mentioning about the bird houses in Turkish culture and art, one shouldn’t forget the pigeonries in the Cappadocia region. While Fairy Chimneys emerge through geographical events, people carved houses and churches inside the fairy chimneys and decorated them with chimneys. “The traditional carved houses and pigeonries of Cappadocia reflect a unique aspect of the region. These houses were built from cut stones on the slopes or on the rocks in the 19th century. Stone is the only architectural material of the region and can be easily processed as it is soft when it is taken out of the quay due to the volcanic structure of the region and it becomes hard after being exposed to air and turns to a very solid construction material. Since the material used is abundant and can be processed easily, the unique stone craft of the region has improved and become an architectural tradition. The pigeonries in the region are small structures build in the 19th century and in the end of 18th century. The surface of the pigeonries has been decorated by the artists of the region by rich decorations and scripts