İpek Han

İpek Han, a two‑storey caravanserai built in the 15th century by Ottoman sultan Mehmed I in the Green Complex of Bursa’s Caravanserai District to bring traffic to the Green Complex.

The building, designed for the use of silk merchants and yarn makers, is one of the largest caravanserais in Bursa. It is located between the Grand Mosque of Bursa and the Rice Caravanserai. Today it is used by manufacturers, wedding dress and evening wear tailoring workshops.

It is part of the Green Complex, which is one of the components of the World Heritage Site “Bursa and Cumalıkızık: The Birth of the Ottoman Empire” that was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014.

History and architectural features

The dealers who bought and sold silk and performed its twisting work, called kazaz, worked in the shops on both sides of this caravanserai, so it was called “Great Kazazhan”. It has also been known as “Sultan Hanı”, “Han‑ı Harir”, “New Silk Caravanserai”, “Old Silk Caravanserai”, “Faytoncular Hanı”, “Arabacılar Hanı”. Although accommodation was not provided in Bursa’s caravanserais, İpek Han was also used for lodging.

The architect is unknown, but it is likely to have been Hacı İvaz Paşa, who was also the architect of the Green Complex.

The structure, built of carved stone and brick, consists of a two‑storey arcade around a courtyard and rooms opening onto these arcades. There are a total of 76 rooms, 38 on the lower floor and 38 on the upper floor. Today some sections have also been converted into rooms, bringing the number of rooms to 81. A small amount of irregular tiles, also seen in the Green Mosque, was used on the interior face of the original façade. In the centre of the caravanserai there is a fountain, four rooms and above them a twelve‑sided prayer niche, but the prayer niche has not survived to the present day.

The entrance façade on the east side of the inn, which was damaged in many fires and earthquakes and underwent various repairs in 1557, 1632, 1742, 1775, was demolished during the opening of Mecidiye Street in the period of Governor Ahmed Vefik Pasha; after the 1958 Bursa Covered Bazaar fire this section was rebuilt. The building was repaired in 1980.