Yalıboyu Route · Stop 6
Of the Yalıboyu houses, the one that has come down in the best condition. And on its arched lower floor facing the river stands something that no longer exists anywhere else.
This building in the Hatuniye neighbourhood is, among the Yalıboyu houses, one of the mansions that have come down to the present in the best condition, with the elements of their civil architecture preserved.2
It was built during the governorship (mutasarrıflık) of Ziya Paşa by the defterdar (provincial treasurer) Hasan Talat Efendi. It was expropriated and restored in 1985 and is used today as a museum.3
The mansion's arched section running along the Yeşilırmak is the only surviving example of the “boathouse” (kayıkhane) culture peculiar to Yalıboyu architecture.
That is how the source records it.1
A kayıkhane, as the name suggests, is the place where the boat (kayık) is kept. So the lower floor of this mansion was not a store-room or a stable but a section opening directly onto the water.
This alone tells you what Yalıboyu means: these houses were built not merely on the bank of the river but together with it. The water was not a view but a door. Today only one of those doors still stands.1
A timber building does not stay this sound by itself. The mansion is still standing in spite of:2
These two are Amasya's two great breaks of the 20th century. Many buildings on this route were repaired or rebuilt after them — like the Clock Tower. Hazeranlar, though, has come down in its original form.
Look at the mansion from the river side — from the opposite bank or from the Alçak Bridge. Look for the arched section beneath the timber projection of the upper floor.1
Those arches are not ornament. They are the boathouse — the place where the boat went in. And according to the source, it is the only surviving example of this culture in Yalıboyu.1 So if you want to see a door onto the river in Amasya, this is the only place you can look.
Go inside: today it is used as a museum.3 As you look at the layout of the rooms, remember that this was the house of a defterdar — the man who kept the state's finances.
Every factual statement on this page rests on one of the sources below. Titles are given in their original Turkish so that they can be found; quotations from them are our translations.
