📩 19/09/2023 13:14
Another good news came from Riyadh today, after the Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy shared on his social media accounts that the Ancient City of Gordion was declared a World Heritage Site and another good news was expected.
Mosques with wooden pillars and beams, which carried the architectural style of the Turks from Central Asia to the Khorasan region from the Middle Ages to the present day, are now on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
At the 45th UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, wood-supported mosques in different provinces of Turkey were included in the World Heritage list.
Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, in his social media post following the decision of the World Heritage Committee, said: “Another good news! We have registered our cultural assets serially on the UNESCO World Heritage List for the first time. After Gordion, the wooden pillar and beam mosques of Anatolia dating from the Middle Ages to the present day also became World Heritage. Thus, we increased the number of cultural assets on the list to 21. Congratulations." said.
Turkey's First Serial Nomination
The historical mosques, which were submitted to UNESCO by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism under the name "Medieval Period Wooden Post and Beam Mosques of Anatolia" and accepted at the meeting held today by the committee, also became Turkey's first series of cultural assets on the World Heritage List.
Konya's Beyşehir Eşrefoğlu Mosque, Eskişehir's Sivrihisar Ulu Mosque, Kastamonu Town Village's Mahmut Bey Mosque, Ankara's Ahi Şerefeddin (Arslanhane) Mosque and Afyonkarahisar Ulu Mosque were declared "World Heritage" at the 45th UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting.
They Reflect an Extraordinary Aesthetic Understanding to Our Day
These structures, which reflect the early examples of wood-supported mosques in Anatolia from the Middle Ages to the present day, have common features even though they are located in different cities.
Well-preserved historical buildings from the Middle Ages to the present day also reflect Anatolian life.
These mosques, which are among the most important representatives of the hypostyle planned monumental wooden mosque typology of their period in Anatolia, also stand out with their examples of wood carving art.
With their meticulous woodwork on their doors, pulpits, column capitals, ceiling beams and consoles, their wooden pulpits in the kundekâri technique, where the names of the masters are recorded, and their decorations called "Pencil Work", these historical mosques display an extraordinary carpentry skill and aesthetic understanding.