Historic fountain used as balcony for 10 years

ISTANBUL

The 404-year-old Mustafa Ağa Fountain in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district has been used as a balcony for 10 years by the residents of the building behind it, a researcher has revealed.

During his study on Ottoman architecture in the 17th century, researcher Hüseyin Kula determined that the historic fountain has been used as a balcony by the people residing in the small building behind the fountain.

A door was created to go out from the building to the fountain, and its roof was surrounded by iron railings.

After Kula announced the incident on social media, the Beyoğlu Municipality removed the railings and cleaned the fountain.

Announcing that the fountain will be taken into care, the teams also filed a complaint to the Cultural Heritage Preservation Regional Board.

“This situation astonished those who are interested in history. As we could not even touch these works, this made me very sad. Living so deeply in history is a great blessing for all of us, and we should protect our historical monuments,” Kula pointed out.

“Fortunately, the municipality dealt with the issue immediately and saved the historical fountain from this captivity,” he added.

Mustafa Ağa, one of the high officials of Ottoman Sultan Osman II, built the fountain in the Hasköy neighborhood, which suffered from thirst at that time, in 1618.

The people residing in the region met their water needs from the fountain for many years, but the fountain was stuck between the buildings with the increase of urbanization and, then water began not to be provided over time.