Yukarı Taş Han (Bolu)

Yukarı Taşhan, the Upper Stone Inn, is a historic Ottoman caravanserai in the old commercial quarter of Bolu, built in 1804 by Hacı Abdullah Ağa, a local notable who held the office of chief steward. It stands adjacent to an earlier building known as the Lower Taşhan, built in 1750 by another notable, Emin Ağa, and together the two form a connected complex. Constructed of cut stone, as its name indicates, Yukarı Taşhan is a two-story building arranged around courtyards and rooms where traveling merchants could lodge along with their pack animals while trading in the town. Its entrance retains a wooden door beside a marble inscription panel in Ottoman Turkish. Between the two taşhans lies an open-air tomb traditionally associated with a local saintly figure known as Eskici Baba. Privately owned until the 1980s, the building passed to Turkey's General Directorate of Foundations and is today leased out to small shopkeepers for everyday commercial use.