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

Çengelköy Çengelköy is a neighborhood in the Üsküdar district on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul, Turkey, between the neighborhoods of Beylerbeyi and Kuleli. It is mainly a residential district. Many mansions were built there in th ...

neighborhood of

Üsküdar Üsküdar () is a large and densely populated district of Istanbul, Turkey, on the Anatolian shore of the Bosphorus. It is bordered to the north by Beykoz, to the east by Ümraniye, to the southeast by Ataşehir and to the south by Kadıköy; w ...

district in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, 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'' ( fa, شهزاده) 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. Origi ...

(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 residence is the House, residence of a head of state, head of government, governor, Clergy, religious leader, leaders of international organizations, or other senior figure. It may be the same place where they conduct their work-relate ...

assigned to the

President of Turkey The president of Turkey, officially the president of the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Cumhurbaşkanı), is the head of state and head of government of Turkey. The president directs the executive branch of the government of Tu ...

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

Alexander Vallaury Alexander Vallaury (1850–1921) was a French- Ottoman architect, who founded architectural education and lectured in the School of Fine Arts in Constantinople (Istanbul), Ottoman Empire. Biography Vallaury was born in 1850 into a Levantine fam ...

(1850–1921) and built by

Ottoman Sultan The sultans of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı padişahları), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to its dissolution in 1922. At its hei ...

Abdul Hamid II Abdülhamid or Abdul Hamid II ( ota, عبد الحميد ثانی, Abd ül-Hamid-i Sani; tr, II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 10 February 1918) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 31 August 1876 to 27 April 1909, and the last sultan to ...

(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 odalisques. 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 Strait (; grc, Βόσπορος ; tr, İstanbul Boğazı 'Istanbul strait', colloquially ''Boğaz'') or Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern Tu ...

. 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, who served as the 8th President of Turkey from 1989 to 1993. He previously served as the 26th Prime Minister of Turkey from 1983 to 1989 as the leader of the Mothe ...

(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 serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...

(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 (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

, a decorative pool with water lilies, a

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard s ...

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''), 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 Britain a ...

''), oak (''

Quercus An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably '' ...

''), cedar of Lebanon (''

Cedrus libani ''Cedrus libani'', the cedar of Lebanon or Lebanese cedar (), is a species of tree in the genus cedrus, a part of the pine family, native to the mountains of the Eastern Mediterranean basin. It is a large evergreen conifer that has great religi ...

''), laurel, redbud (''

Cercis ''Cercis'' is a genus of about 10 species in the subfamily Cercidoideae of the pea family Fabaceae, native to warm temperate regions. It contains small deciduous trees or large shrubs commonly known as redbuds. They are characterised by simpl ...

'') 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 Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It co ...

'').

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