Restoration at burned-down pavilion nearing end

ISTANBUL

The restoration process of a 516-year-old pavilion at a remarkable Istanbul mosque is nearing its end, waiting for the day it will welcome its visitors again following a devastating fire in 2011.

The Sultan’s Pavilion section of the iconic Beyazid II Mosque, an early 16th-century Ottoman imperial place located in Istanbul’s historic peninsula, is expected to reopen to people in the summer months.

Some 70 percent of the restoration process has been completed, according to the information given by authorities.

In the last stage of the works, the lead coating on the roof will be mounted, and the conservation of wood coating, painting and polishing works will be carried out. The complex will eventually be put into service after the completion of the landscaping.

Having a rectangular plan stage and built on marble, granite and wooden pillars, the historic building was severely damaged in 2011 by a fire caused by an electrical leakage.

“The usable wooden elements damaged by the fire were conserved and preserved in situ. The unusable ones were renewed. Marble pillars and hand-drawn surfaces were cleaned from soot using the methods recommended by a scientific committee,” said Feyyaz Fidan, an official.

Stressing that there were detachments from the mosque body wall on the upper floor of the building, the official noted that the damaged and lost parts of the structure were also renewed.

He also heralded that the restoration process would end even before expected.