Istanbul’s Last Gentleman: Çelik Gülersoy 04/02/2023

 

Istanbul’s Last Gentleman: Çelik Gülersoy

04/02/2023

Written byMahan Dogrusoz

Çelik Gülersoy (1930-2003)

If there is one man that has made Sultanahmet what it is today, he is Çelik Gülersoy. He was the first person to envision a Sultanahmet that was restored to its ancient glory.

Çelik Gülersoy was born in an Anatolian city of Hakkari in the south east of Turkey due to his father’s profession, His family moved to Istanbul when he was three to the historical neighbourhood of Kariye where the church of Chora is located.

Byzantine Church of Chora in Edirnekapi where Çelik Gülersoy was raised

He fell in love with old Istanbul when he was a student at Beyoglu Boys High School and later as a young law student. His faculty was based in Sultanahmet inside the campus of the Istanbul University. As a young student, he had the chance to discover the old town and imagine how it could be restored to its original beauty. Sultanahmet of his of youth and young adulthood was full of old historical mansions left to their own fates, decaying,

Sultanahmet in 1970s

When he became the General Manager of the Touring and Automotive Foundation of Turkey in 1966, he decided to turn his passion for the city into reality. He is the man that revived Soguk Cesme Street to its original glory. The street was a messy mix of decaying wooden houses and apartments buildings that were built after some wooden houses had been abolished. He was keen on recreating an old Istanbul street. His foundation bought all the real estate on the street and a long and hard restoration project began. It is only due to Çelik Gülersoy that we have this beautiful old Istanbul street.

This is how the houses on the street looked before the restoration.

He turned one of the mansions on the street into ‘Istanbul Library’ which is the only library in the city containing books specifically about Istanbul. This library literally is the ‘memory’ of the city with a collection of 11.000 books about our city.

Upper floor of the Library

An old book on Constantinople

He also restored an old Byzantine Cistern on this street and turned it into a restaurant. The cistern was used by an atelier before and was in a terrible condition.

Sarnic restaurant’s old decoration after Çelik Gülersoy’s restoration

The fountain of the Soguk Cesme Street which literally means ‘cold fountain street’ and the view of Hagia Sophia from the other end of the road

All of these old mansions were designed and used as a hotel by the Touring and Automative Foundation of Turkey and rooms were decorated with 19th century original furniture and paintings.

Another important contribution of Çelik Gülersoy was the Green House which had to be ‘reconstructed’ as the old Istanbul mansion was in an unrecognizable condition. It was turned into a wonderful hotel which hosted guests from the French President Francois Mitterrand to the Spanish Queen Sofia.

Green House

It had a lovely garden and a green house with beautiful plants and flowers. The garden was a refuge from the chaos of the city. The fountain in the middle of the garden was taken from a vanishing old Istanbul mansion in Besiktas.

The fountain in the middle of the garden

Interior of the hotel and the rooms were decorated with 19th century original furniture, objects and paintings. Çelik Gülersoy had spent long hours inside the antique shops of Istanbul to find the right furniture for this 19th century mansion.

Çelik Gülersoy also revived a decaying old Ottoman religious school (medrese) right next to the Green House and turned it into an Arts and Crafts Center for traditional arts.

Arts and Crafts Center after restoration. It used to be an old religious school during the Ottoman era.

Arts and Crafts Center before the restoration

Old Istanbul coffee house restored by Çelik Gülersoy next to the Arts and Crafts Center

Çelik Gülersoy passed away in 2003 and his legacy was destroyed one after another. The hotel’s management was given to another group that sold all the antique furniture, objects, paintings and engravings and replaced them with kitsch objects and a decoration that resembles Moroccan style rather than 19th century Istanbul. They tried to destroy the Istanbul Library by ‘moving’ the books out of the Library and renting the mansion but failed. The only thing that remains intact is the Arts and Crafts Center and the Old Istanbul Coffee House.

I call Çelik Gülersoy the last gentleman of Istanbul. We owe him a deep gratitude for making Sultanahmet what it is today but also a deep apology for not being to protect his legacy. Let him rest in peace.

https://eternalcityistanbul.com/istanbuls-last-gentleman-celik-gulersoy/