THE INCOMPLETE REINTEGRATION OF AMASYA BİMARHANE’S PORTAL

Bimarhane of Amasya, built in 1308 during the time of Ilkhanate, is one of the most important monuments in Anatolia. The Bimarhane has been frequently mentioned in previous research in history of architecture. The building design features have been considered as examples of the Seljuk madrasah tradition. The importance of Bimarhane is not only about history of architecture, but also about history of restoration of the Turkish Republic. In the middle of the 20^th century, the monument was restored by Ali Saim Ülgen, Director of the Department of Antiquities and Heritages, who conducted many conservation projects. Contrary to what had been known until this time, it was planned to reintegrate the missing part of the portal like the similar ones. Even it was decided to replace the ornaments in the reintegrated parts of the portal by him. But at end of the restoration, only one corner of the portal was reintegrated level by level instead of planning initially. It has been accepted that this type of reintegration carries a modern conservation concept which is valid not only in the context of the period, but also in the present. Although the first decision of the restoration has been discovered through Ülgen’s archives documents; the reason of changing its direction, has not been illuminated yet. In this paper, according to the new information obtained from Ülgen’s archive, the reintegration project of Bimarhane’s portal during the restoration of 1948–51 is explained.