The İzmit Clock Tower ( Turkish: ''İzmit Saat Kulesi'') in

İzmit İzmit () is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Its area is 480 km2, and its population is 376,056 (2022). The capital of Kocaeli Province, it is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

is one of many

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building ...

s that were built throughout the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

as a result of the decree which was sent to the provincial governors to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Sultan

Abdülhamid 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 period of decline wit ...

's ascension to the Ottoman throne. It was designed by architect Vedat Tek upon the order of Musa Kazım Bey, the governor of İzmit, and built in 1902. Other sources name the architect of the tower as Mihran Azaryan who was an Armenian-Ottoman of Izmit origin. The neoclassical clock tower, which stands just in front of the Hünkar Pavilion of Sultan

Abdülaziz Abdulaziz (; ; 8 February 18304 June 1876) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 25 June 1861 to 30 May 1876, when he was 1876 Ottoman coup d'état, overthrown in a government coup. He was a son of Sultan Mahmud II and succeeded his brother ...

, has four floors with dimensions . The ground floor houses fountains, while the clock is on the top floor. All four facades of the middle floors are decorated with the seal of Sultan Abdülhamid II. The pointed cone on top is coated with lead. The clock tower has been an inseparable part of the history of İzmit throughout the 20th century, and has become the symbol of the city. In the former Balkan provinces of the Ottoman Empire, particularly in present-day

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

n, Bosnian and Montenegrin towns such as

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Prijepolje Prijepolje ( sr-Cyrl, Пријепоље, ) is a town and municipality located in the Zlatibor District of southwestern Serbia. As of 2022, the town has 11,928 inhabitants, while the municipality has 32,214 inhabitants. Etymology One possible mean ...

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

Banja Luka Banja Luka ( sr-Cyrl, Бања Лука, ) or Banjaluka ( sr-Cyrl, Бањалука, ) is the List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, second largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the largest city in Republika Srpska. Banja Luka is the tr ...

Gradačac Gradačac () is a city located in the Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the northeastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, roughly south of the Sava river. As of 2013, ...

and Stara Varoš, similar Ottoman era clock towers are still named ''Sahat Kula'' (deriving from the Turkish words ''Saat Kulesi'', meaning ''Clock Tower''.) It was restored in 2006.

References

See also