Adım Adım Amasya

Yalıboyu Route · Stop 7

Clock Tower

The tower you see today was built in 2002. The original was pulled down in 1940 — with the promise of building a better one. For sixty-two years nothing was put in its place.

1864–1866 Ziya Paşa Rebuilt in 2002
The bank of the Yeşilırmak in 1937: the original clock tower on the rock, the timber Helkıs Bridge on the right, buildings on timber posts along the bank
1937 — the original tower, three years before it was pulled down. On the rock, in a spot visible from everywhere in the city.1 On the right, the timber Helkıs Bridge. Look at the foot of the tower: there is no distinct base — the shaft rises straight from the ground.1 Hüseyin Menç Archive.

📜 What do the documents say?

The tower stands within the city's Helkıs neighbourhood, in front of the Hükümet (Government) Bridge. It was designed on the rock that separates Bağ Helkıs from Sade Helkıs, in a commanding position visible from everywhere in the city.1

It was built as part of the extensive building works carried out in 1864-1866 by Ziya Paşa, governor (mutasarrıf) of Amasya. As part of those works, six clock towers in all were built — in the town and in its five districts.2

The tower was damaged in a fire in 1865 and restored again, staying true to the original.3

Pulled down, then rebuilt

The same Governor Talat Öncel had also changed another building on this route: the Helkıs Bridge was rebuilt by him in reinforced concrete in 1940. So in the same year, in the same view, two buildings changed at once.

“True to the original” — but not quite

In old photographs
no distinct base can be seen on the tower.

Yet during its construction in 2002, a square base of dressed stone, about 2.5 metres high, was added to the tower, and a shop belonging to a private business was placed inside this part.1

~2.5 mHeight of the base added in 2002.
SquareThe plan of the base; dressed stone.
1 shopPlaced inside the base.
62 yearsBetween demolition and rebuilding.

You can check this with your own eyes. In the 1937 photograph above, the shaft of the tower rises straight from the ground. When you see it today, there is a mass of stone beneath it — and a shop at work inside.

This page does not judge this as a fault. It simply says: “true to the original” does not always mean “identical to the original” — and the way to see the difference is to look at old photographs.

Look at the foot of the tower

First look at the 1937 picture above: the shaft comes straight out of the rock and ground; there is no mass of stone beneath it.1

Then raise your head and look at today's tower. Find the square dressed-stone base, about 2.5 metres high, beneath it.1 There is a shop inside.

The difference between the two pictures is sixty-two years. In between, there was no tower in this view. And remember this too: Ziya Paşa had six towers built — one for the town, five for the districts.2 This is one of those six.

While you are there, look for

Key facts

Original
1864–1866, Mutasarrıf Ziya Paşa2
Present structure
2002, led by Governor Hüseyin Poroy1
Demolished
1940, Governor Talat Öncel1
Location
Helkıs neighbourhood; in front of the Hükümet Bridge, on the rock separating Bağ Helkıs from Sade Helkıs1
Added in 2002
~2.5 m square base of dressed stone; a shop inside1
Its siblings
In the same building programme: the town + five districts = six towers2
Coordinates
40.65284918, 35.83340627 — verified from an external source
In the book
Kültürel Miras Boyutuyla Amasya

This building is not recorded in OpenStreetMap; its coordinates were verified from Kültür Envanteri and Wikidata records. The Hükümet Bridge is at 40.652705, 35.833525 in OSM — the tower stands in front of it.1

📍 Open on the map

Sources

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.

  1. Emre Kolay, Amasya İl Merkezinde Geç Dönem Kamu Yapıları (1848-1947) (Samsun: Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Yüksek Lisans Tezi, 2013), 20, 35-36.
  2. Kenan Akyüz, Ziya Paşa'nın Amasya Mutasarrıflığı Sırasındaki Olaylar (Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Basımevi, 1964), 3.
  3. Arife Koca, Kent Mimarisinde Değişen Sınır Kavramı: Amasya Örneği Üzerinden Bir İnceleme (Eskişehir: Anadolu Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Yüksek Lisans Tezi, 2019), 73.