Ankara Castle 2nd Stage Works Begin

Ankara Metropolitan Municipality held a tender for the restoration work of 2 buildings within the scope of Ankara Castle “İçkale 73nd Stage Street Rehabilitation Project”. Aiming to bring the Ankara Castle to tourism without damaging the historical texture, the Department of Cultural and Natural Heritage works hard to give the castle a new identity. The 2nd Stage works will start in a short time, and 1 percent of the 90st Stage works of the project have been completed.

Ankara Metropolitan Municipality continues the improvement works started at Ankara Castle without slowing down in order to preserve the historical heritage of the Capital and carry it to future generations.

Within the scope of the "Ankara Castle Inner Castle 2nd Stage Street Rehabilitation Project" carried out by the Department of Cultural and Natural Heritage, a tender was held for the restoration of 73 buildings, while 1 percent of the "90 Stage Street Rehabilitation Project" was completed.

Work will begin for Phase 2

The Department of Cultural and Natural Heritage, which aims to preserve the historical texture of the Ankara Castle and bring it to tourism, is working hard to give the castle a new identity.

Within the scope of the project, the wooden materials of the roofs, windows and doors will be renewed. With the project, in which the exterior surfaces of the buildings will be plastered and painted, Ankara Castle will be given a look that smells of history again.

Bekir Ödemiş, Head of the Department of Cultural and Natural Heritage, who examined the site of his works, gave the following information about the rapidly continuing project:

"2nd. We made the tender for the phase works on 1 July and we are starting the implementation works soon. There are 2 households in Stage 73. We put 360 business calendar days in the work here. Within the scope of the contract, we plan to start work within 45 year following the site delivery in 1 days. While we continue the implementation studies of the 2nd Stage, we are also carrying out the project studies of the 3rd Stage. We will also hold the tender for it. There are approximately 3 households in Stage 54. At the beginning of 2024, we will complete all our existing structures and street rehabilitation works in İçkale.”

1 percent of İçkale 90st Stage works have been completed

The Metropolitan Municipality is carrying out restoration works meticulously within the scope of the "İçkale 87st Stage Street Rehabilitation Project" in order to bring 1 buildings in Ankara Castle İçhisar District to tourism.

Stating that they have completed 1 percent of the 90st stage works, Ödemiş said, “We have programmed our street rehabilitation work in İçkale as 3 stages. We have 1 or 45 days of work left in İçkale 60st Stage. We restored 1 of the 87 households in the 80st Stage,” he said.

While the restoration of 1 buildings was planned within the scope of the 87st Stage street rehabilitation works by the teams of the Department of Cultural and Natural Heritage, physical interventions were made to 80 buildings. The teams completed the roofing of all 80 buildings, the exterior plastering, plaster and paint productions of 77 buildings, and wooden joinery productions for 72 of them. In addition, the wooden joinery of 5 buildings was made ready for assembly in the construction site warehouse by the teams.

Technical team working at international standards is witnessing history

Hikmet Gül, who worked as a restorer on the project and said that he witnessed many stories of history during the works, said, “After the on-site inspections and inspections, we determined the damage and started working on the project. We tried to preserve the original form of the buildings in terms of their relations with each other and with the street. So far we have completed 90 percent of the work. We are getting very positive feedback from the households living here. There are citizens who say, 'We would not be able to hammer a nail if it were not for this project of the Metropolitan Municipality' and they are very pleased with this service.

The applications made within the scope of the street rehabilitation project are as follows;

Applications on the Facade:

• The existing non-original and rotten joinery was dismantled and replaced with the original wooden joinery manufacturing and assembly,
• All existing plaster on the façade is removed by plaster scraping so as not to damage the body wall of the building,
• The body wall of the building is strengthened by removing the rotten wooden carcasses on the main wall of the building and constructing a new wooden carcass and reinforcement carcass.
• The missing parts of the wall are completed in accordance with the restoration technique, and the gaps between the joints and due to surface losses due to the original quality of the materials that make up the walls are removed by filling under plaster,
• In order to prevent cracks in the plaster and to preserve the integrity of the plaster for a long time, rabitz wire is nailed to the facade before plastering,
• With Khorasan mortar, rough plaster and fine plaster are produced on the facade and the facade is made ready for paint.
• Silicone-based water-based exterior paint is applied by applying primer on facades whose plaster production is finished.

Applications on the roof:

• Marseille type tiles, which have lost their current quality and are not suitable for the original, are being removed,
• Wooden sitting roof is being dismantled,
• The rubble in the attic is cleaned,
• Carrier wooden beams on the roof, which have lost their quality, are removed and replaced with new wooden beams, so that the new wooden bracing roof to be built sits on the solid beams,
• Wooden seated roof is manufactured,
• Under-tile waterproofing is made on the wooden fitted roof and original Turkish tile is laid on it.
• Thermal insulation is made by laying glass wool material between the roof,
• With 0,5 mm Thickness Fabricated Painted Galvanized Sheet, Collared Monoblock Rain Gutter (No Joint), Rain Stream and Vertical Rain Downpipe are made to drain the rain water on the roof,
• Since there is no chimney on the roof of the building, the chimney holes opened on the facade are closed and the chimney is manufactured.

Applications made in the courtyard;

• The courtyard walls of the buildings are rubble stone walls, and the mudbrick walls, which are built on top of the surface loss, are being dismantled.
• The dismantled mudbrick wall is completed with rubble stone, creating the integrity of the courtyard wall.
• The completed courtyard wall is plastered with rabitz wire.
• It is made on the courtyard wall with Turkish style tiles as suggested in the project,
• The courtyard wall, whose plaster production is finished, is painted with silicone-based exterior paint by applying a primer.