Bursa in photographs of the period of Sultan Abdulhamid II

The city of Bursa situated in the West of Turkey, has been for millennia a settlement area at the intersection of travel and trade routes. From 1335 to 1363 it was the capital of the Ottoman State. Today a major industrial zone, it is important as a touristic, artistic and archaeological center. IRCICA published a deluxe album of photographs of Bursa. from the end of the 19th-beginning of the 20th century. The photographs were selected from the collections contained in the archive of IRCICA namely the Yıldız Albums of the Sultan Abdulhamid II, and various collections which were donated to IRCICA, namely those of Fahreddin Pasha, Sabiha Darga, Salih Keramet Nigar, İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal İnal, Hidayet Yavuz Nuhoğlu,Tevfik Bıyıklıoğlu, Talip Mert and Hikmet Öğüt. The photographs show districts, gates, mosques, tombs, fountains, roads, bridges, ceremonies, personalities. There is also a section on “Photographers and Photograph Studios”. This album appeared in the 2011 Evliya Çelebi Year declared by UNESCO, since Bursa was of special importance for Evliya Çelebi (1611-1684). It was the first city that he visited outside İstanbul and one of the very few he traveled to with the specific aim of learning about it.