Selimiye Barracks ( tr, Selimiye Kışlası), also known as Scutari Barracks, is a Turkish Army barracks located in the Üsküdar district on the

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

n side of

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

. It was originally built in 1800 by Sultan Selim III for the soldiers of the newly established '' Nizam-ı Cedid'' (literally "New Order") within the framework of the Ottoman military reform efforts. Today, it serves as the headquarters of the First Army of Turkish Land Forces. The Barracks is situated in the Harem neighbourhood between Üsküdar and

Kadıköy Kadıköy (), known in classical antiquity and during the Roman and Byzantine eras as Chalcedon ( gr, Χαλκηδών), is a large, populous, and cosmopolitan district in the Asian side of Istanbul, Turkey, on the northern shore of the Sea ...

, close to the Sea of Marmara. The highway connecting the ferry terminal and the overland bus terminal to the motorway Istanbul-Ankara runs right past the barracks.

Construction

The original wooden barracks was designed by Krikor Balyan but was burnt down in 1806 by rebel Janissaries, who were resisting the sultan's reforms. Sultan

Mahmud II Mahmud II ( ota, محمود ثانى, Maḥmûd-u s̠ânî, tr, II. Mahmud; 20 July 1785 – 1 July 1839) was the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. His reign is recognized for the extensive administrative, ...

commissioned the rebuilding of the barracks in stone in 1825 and the work was completed on 6 February 1828. During the reign of Sultan Abdülmecid I, the barracks were renovated twice, first in 1842–43 and again in 1849–50. During this process, a tower seven stories in height was added to each of the four corners, giving the barracks its current appearance. The barracks is a vast rectangular building measuring with a large parade ground in the centre. Three of the wings have three floors but the eastern wing only has two floors due to the sloping terrain.

Crimean War

:''See also

Renkioi Hospital Renkioi Hospital was a pioneering prefabricated building made of wood, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel as a British Army military hospital for use during the Crimean War. Background During 1854 Britain entered into the Crimean War, and th ...

'' During the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

(1854–56), the barracks were allocated to the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

, which was on its way from Britain to the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...

. After the troops of its 33rd and 41st foot regiments left for the front, the barracks was converted into a temporary military hospital. On 4 November 1854,

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War ...

arrived in Scutari with 37 volunteer nurses. They cared for thousands of wounded and infected soldiers until she returned home in 1857 as a heroine. During the war around 6,000 soldiers died in the Selimiye Barracks, mostly as the result of a

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium '' Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting an ...

epidemic. The dead were buried at a plot near the barracks, which later became the Haydarpaşa Cemetery. Today, the northernmost tower of the barracks houses a small museum partly in memory of Nightingale. File:93rd officers in the Crimea - photo.jpg, An early photo, taken at Scutari, of officers and men of the 93rd Highland Regiment, shortly before their engagement in the Crimean War, 1854. File:'One of the wards in the hospital at Scutari'. Wellcome M0007724 - restoration, cropped.jpg, An 1856 lithograph of the Selimiye barracks as a hospital during the Crimean War.

References

{{Üsküdar Üsküdar Military installations established in 1800 Krikor Amira Balyan buildings Buildings and structures of the Ottoman Empire Crimean War Florence Nightingale Buildings and structures in Istanbul Barracks in Turkey Military history of the Ottoman Empire Military in Istanbul Military history of Istanbul