President of the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye (TBB) and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Ekrem İmamoğlu, together with Adana Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Zeydan Karalar, inspected the ongoing restoration area of Yedikule Gasworks, one of the city's industrial heritages. İmamoğlu and Karalar received information from IMM Deputy Secretary General Mahir Polat and IMM Cultural Heritage Department Head Oktay Özel about the status of the works and the planned process, and then toured the area and observed the point reached in the works. Both mayors shared their observations about the process with the public in the work area.
“SERIOUS EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE HERE FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS”
“Today, we visited the stage of our ongoing work in a very impressive venue in Istanbul,” said İmamoğlu, adding:
“In Yedikule Gazhanesi, we had previously opened a section where our citizens would get to know the place and also organize some exhibitions and entertainment meetings with two small units and started to promote this place. Serious efforts have been made here for three years. We think that we have added another dimension to the restoration and transformation of historical structures. Contrary to some understandings, sometimes by decaying, sometimes by destroying, in other words by re-building from scratch what has existed until today, by revealing the brick covered with plaster here, by carrying its entire mystical world to today, to this history but by including today’s functions, while also keeping very special academic studies on reinforcement in the process… We have achieved this sometimes in the city walls, sometimes in the bastions in Rumeli Hisarı or in Anadolu Hisarı in different ways. It continues in many places.”
“WE HAD ACHIEVED A MAGNIFICENT MEETING WITH OUR PEOPLE AT HASANPAŞA GAZHANE”
“One of the very special structures of Istanbul is these gasworks. Gasworks are actually very special places that met the electricity needs of Istanbul towards the end of the 19th century. Kadıköy We had managed to have a magnificent meeting with our people at Hasanpaşa Gazhane. And right now, it is breaking records in terms of human participation. I saw during my first visit that Yedikule Gazhane was pregnant with extraordinary opportunities. While it was a world in a state of collapse, with its roofs collapsed, nothing inside, rubble piled up in the soil, experiencing and seeing these changes at the moment affected me a lot. Frankly, each structure with a different mission… The spaces where we will ensure that the concept of a City Museum of Istanbul is conveyed to our people with current, contemporary, digital and technological applications, which we have just visited, are magnificent spaces… Even imagining it excites people today. The spatial transitions connecting them, the tunnels where they carried coal in the past, are now areas where people will see the chronological history of Istanbul… “
“WE WILL MOVE OUR MAGNIFICENT CITY ARCHIVE FROM ATATÜRK LIBRARY TO HERE”
“On the one hand, we have extraordinarily strong structures where work will be done on the city archive. These structures both transform our magnificent city archive in the Atatürk Library into a more specialized center, attracting national and international people, especially the intellectual world, historians, writers, and Istanbul enthusiasts; and in another dimension, we are establishing an area of expertise where conservation, arrangements, improvements, recording, and archiving work will be done. This is truly a candidate to be one of the few places in the world. Of course, while all this is happening here, we are in a place that has its feet on the sea walls on one hand and its feet on the land walls on the other. Looking at the Marmara Sea from here, watching the Islands, where we will have tourism areas, hotel buildings, food and beverage areas, different work units, a cafeteria and restaurant where the people of the nearby region can come and spend time… We visited the works here that are leading towards the conclusion of a magnificent area that will expand the imagination of the people from the past to the present, from today to tomorrow, on the one hand popular, on the other hand internationally, and on the other hand intellectual world, especially children, from the past to the present, from today to tomorrow, and will focus on Istanbul.”
“GOOD LUCK IN ADVANCE”
“Of course, another special aspect of this trip for me was both touring this place with my dear friend Adana Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mr. Zeydan Karalar and our team’s previous visit to Adana… Especially every city has magnificent heritages… Adana is really one of the most important historical centers of our country like Istanbul. In such an area, in structural arrangements concerning both recent history and the past, how we can cooperate as IMM Heritage and how we can share experiences were ongoing. Today, in Istanbul, we toured this beautiful place, this magnificent area with them and talked and designed the roadmap and journey of our cooperation. I hope that not only 16 million Istanbulites, not only our entire nation, but the whole world will queue up to visit the City Museum, digital animations, mapping animations, a number of temporary exhibitions and especially the digital archive, as well as the city archive here for access to the normal archive, and together we will experience the magnificent area. May it be auspicious in advance. I hope we will make good collaborations with my esteemed President.”
KARALAR: “WHEN I SEE THESE EXPERIENCES, I WILL NEVER LEAVE THE IBB HERITAGE TEAM”
Karalar, who stated that he participated in the inspection tour upon İmamoğlu's invitation, shared his observations with the following words:
“First of all, because it is a magnificent place. I mean, it is impossible not to be impressed. We really need to thank President Ekrem and his team. These are important values that are on the verge of disappearing. In other words, it is impossible for you to do it again. Here is a place where German, Ottoman, Byzantine… All of them come together. Magnificent. Recreating this, bringing it to light, allowing people to see, present it, and see it, is really admirable, President. I worked in Istanbul for many years. As I was passing by, I saw the walls and ruins. I said, ‘What kind of work is this?’ I mean, ‘They are from the Byzantines. You can’t do it again. What will happen to these walls? What a shame,’ and while I was saying that, I saw President Ekrem restoring the walls. I was really impressed. Istanbul, thank God, sent its team. We are working here. Adana is a 10 thousand-year-old city. 16 tribes have come and gone. Each tribe has left a culture. It is also a rich city. Of course, it is not possible to compare it with Istanbul. It is not possible to compare Istanbul with the world. Maybe London, Paris, Rome; you can compare them. But for us, Istanbul is even more valuable than them. Therefore, I have seen it myself. I attach great importance to the support of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality regarding such works. It will continue. Ekrem Mayor, we thank you very much, together with your friends. Especially when I see these experiences, I will never let them go. I congratulate you again and again, Mayor, for bringing up important dates again.”
THE FIRST SECTION OF THE YEDİKULE GAZAŞESİ WAS OPENED IN MARCH 2023 WITH THE “LONG WALK” EXHIBITION
Yedikule Gasworks, which was completed in 1880, was the first gas factory established in Istanbul for social service. The gasworks met the lighting needs of the historical region for many years. In 1993, the gasworks, which was decommissioned along with other similar structures in the city, served as a facility that included units such as coal-gas production structures, tar separators, cranes, retort boilers, washing facilities, warehouses, weighbridges, administrative buildings, and gas tanks built on an area of 78.475 square meters. Some of the Yedikule Gasworks structures, which were also used as excavation dumping areas and bus parking areas in the following years, lost all their functions and equipment over time, while some managed to survive to the present day. The “Hangar” section of Yedikule Gasworks was introduced to the city’s cultural, artistic, and social life with the “Long Walk” exhibition on June 3, 2023, and became a center of attraction for Istanbul with its green areas, public spaces, and multifaceted events.
