Kızlarağası Han

Kızlarağası Hanı is a historic caravanserai located in the Konak district of İzmir.

It was commissioned in 1744 by Hacı Beşir Ağa, who served as the girls' chief during the reigns of III. Ahmed and I. Mahmud. Today it is one of the tourist and historic shopping venues of Kemeraltı.

History

According to the construction record of the han, it was built in 1744 by Hacı Beşir Ağa. It is one of the oldest buildings in Kemeraltı. Its ground floor was used for shopping and the upper floor for accommodation.

It is believed that the building was completed in 1745. Although there are no definitive details about its construction, it is known that the person who commissioned it was Kızlarağası Hacı Beşir Ağa. Immediately behind İzmir Port Castle, construction of the han began in 1744 and was completed in 1745. The han filled an important void in its time. It is located in the area now known as Yemişçiler and Halim Ağa Market, and its main façade opened onto Keresteciler Street. Today this is 871 Street. The han, a rare surviving work of Ottoman architecture in İzmir, generally has a square form like other hans. Inside the building, traditionally a rectangular and spacious courtyard would have a fountain and a pool at its center. Such an area does not exist today. As with almost every long-distance han, it was two‑storeyed. On the upper floor, rooms opening onto a gallery accommodated those who wished to stay, while on the ground floor the opposite of the upper floor’s simple living was seen. There were rooms where camels, merchants and servants could stay with their loads, shops where goods were unloaded and marketed, and people bargaining. Because the han was close to the port, it has always remained lively. At a certain period the han also functioned like a kind of exchange, especially in the shops facing the inner courtyard where such transactions were intensive. In the 18th and 19th centuries, as technology brought various changes in transportation and the economic life shifted from time to time, Kızlarağası Han gradually lost its importance. After night stays ceased, the han became merely a place where goods were unloaded and stored.

In 1993 it was restored and today serves as a tourist bazaar where you can find a wide variety of handicraft products, carpets, leather garments and striking souvenirs, and you can relieve your fatigue by drawing the mystical atmosphere into yourself in the open tea garden in the exact middle of the han.

Another of İzmir's old monumental structures is Hisar Mosque. It was commissioned by Aydınoğlu (Molla) Yakup Bey in the late 16th century. Documents give the construction dates as 1592 and 1598; in the middle of the mosque there is a central large dome and on both sides two longitudinal domes each. The last congregation part consists of a revak with seven domes.

The narrow long haram, separated from the garden wall by the square with two fountains in front, extends southward through a passage. The mosque, which underwent repairs in 1813, 1881, 1927 and 1980, is supported from the south and west by buttress arches and walls. The decoration has been enriched by the influence of the 18th and 19th centuries. In the column capitals, above the windows and in the façade ornaments, European artistic influences can be seen on the mihrab, the minbar and the preacher's pulpit.