Vahdettin Pavilion, a.k.a. Çengelköy Pavilion ( or ''Çengelköy Köşkü'') is the name of a rebuilt structure in

Çengelköy Çengelköy () is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Üsküdar, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its population is 13,801 (2022). It is on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus strait, between the neighborhoods of Beylerbeyi and Kuleli. It ...

neighborhood of

Üsküdar Üsküdar () is a municipality and district of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 35 km2, and its population is 524,452 (2022). It is a large and densely populated district on the Anatolian (Asian) shore of the Bosphorus. It is border ...

district in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, Turkey. It is also the name of a historical timber mansion which stood at the same location. The original pavilion was used by the then Ottoman

şehzade ''Şehzade'' () is the Ottoman form of the Persian title '' Shahzadeh'', and refers to the male descendants of an Ottoman sovereign in the male line. This title is equivalent to " prince of the blood imperial" in English. Origin ''Şehzade'' d ...

(prince) Mehmed Vahdettin. The site of this monument, which was demolished in 2013 and replaced with an inaccurate concrete replica, is now an

official residence An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of th ...

assigned to the

President of Turkey The president of Turkey, officially the president of the Republic of Türkiye (), is the head of state and head of government of Turkey. The president directs the executive branch of the national government and is the commander-in-chief of the ...

. It is also used as state guest house. The residence was designed by the French-Ottoman architect

Alexander Vallaury Alexandre Vallaury (1850–1921) was a French- Ottoman architect who established architectural education in the Ottoman Empire at the School of Fine Arts in Constantinople. Nicknamed "architect of the city" () by Osman Hamdi Bey, Vallaury, alon ...

(1850–1921) and built by

Ottoman Sultan The sultans of the Ottoman Empire (), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to Dissolution of the Ottoman Em ...

Abdul Hamid II Abdulhamid II or Abdul Hamid II (; ; 21 September 184210 February 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a Decline and modernizati ...

(reigned 1876–1909). The sultan allocated the building to his brother, Mehmed Vahdettin (1861–1926), who resided in the pavilion before he ascended the throne in 1918. As he was removed from throne in 1922, and was forced to leave the country, he gave the property to one of his

odalisque An odalisque (, ) was an enslaved chambermaid or a female attendant in a Turkish seraglio, particularly the court ladies in the household of the Ottoman sultan. In western European usage, the term came to mean the harem concubine, and refer ...

s. The real estate was parceled and sold to third persons. It is situated on a hill in Çengelköy, on the Asian part of Istanbul, overlooking the

Bosphorus The Bosporus or Bosphorus Strait ( ; , colloquially ) is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul, Turkey. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and forms one of the continental bo ...

. The real estate covers an area of . There are additional buildings in the property including Old Köçeoğlu Pavilion, Kadın Efendi Pavilion and Ağalar Apartment. In 1988, Prime minister

Turgut Özal Halil Turgut Özal (13 October 192717 April 1993) was a Turkish politician, bureaucrat, engineer and statesman who served as the eighth president of Turkey from 1989 to 1993. He previously served as the 26th prime minister of Turkey from 1983 ...

(in office: 1983–1989) instructed the development of the pavilion into a rest home for the prime ministry. The restoration works terminated with the death of Özal in 1993. The contractor abandoned the buildings as the appropriations stood away. In 2007, the property was handed over from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to the General Directorate for Foundations, which assigned it to the Prime Ministry. Prime Minister

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

(in office: 2003–2014) ordered the restart of the renovation works. All the buildings were pulled down. During the 'reconstruction' no attention was given to the architectural details, materialization, orientation, location, or the existing surrounding landscape design. Three adjoining historical timber mansions were demolished as well, and similarly all of them were 'rebuilt' without giving any attention to the original designs. The buildings resemble the original monuments only superficially. For landscaping, an area of was nationalized by governmental decree in 2013. Hundreds of trees were felled surrounding the Pavilion, and a tall concrete wall now surrounds the complex. During Ramadan 2014 residents of 14 neighboring structures were evicted from their homes. The transformation works completed in August 2014. Vahdettin Pavilion is used by the prime minister and serves also as a state guest house. There are a

greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

, a decorative pool with water lilies, a

helipad A helipad is the landing area of a heliport, in use by helicopters, powered lift, and vertical lift aircraft to land on surface. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fa ...

and a parking garage in the residence area. The wood in which the pavilion is situated features about three hundred trees, including stone pine (''

Pinus pinea The Italian stone pine, botanical name ''Pinus pinea'', also known as the Mediterranean stone pine is a tree from the pine family (''Pinaceae''). The tree is native to the Mediterranean region, occurring in Southern Europe and the Levant. The ...

''), linden (''

Tilia ''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperateness, temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Great Bri ...

''), oak (''

Quercus An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

''), cedar of Lebanon (''

Cedrus libani ''Cedrus libani'', commonly known as cedar of Lebanon, Lebanon cedar, or Lebanese cedar (), is a species of large evergreen conifer in the genus ''Cedrus'', which belongs to the Pinaceae, pine family and is native species, native to the mountai ...

''), laurel, redbud (''

Cercis ''Cercis'' is a genus of about 10 species in the subfamily Cercidoideae of the pea family (biology), family Fabaceae. It contains small deciduous trees or large shrubs commonly known as redbuds in the USA. They are characterised by simple, rou ...

'') and gumwood (''

Commidendrum ''Commidendrum'' is a genus of trees and shrubs in the family Asteraceae endemic to the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. The vernacular name is ''gumwood'' or ''scrubwood''. ; Species * †'' Commidendrum burchellii'' (Hook.f ...

'').

References

{{Imperial palaces in Turkey Prime ministerial residences Presidential palaces in Turkey Official residences in Turkey Buildings and structures in Istanbul Üsküdar Bosphorus Ottoman palaces in Istanbul Houses completed in the 19th century 19th-century architecture in Turkey