Büyük Han.

What to see at Büyük Han

• A two-storey courtyard ringed by pointed arches on round columns, on both levels.
• In the middle of the court, a small octagonal mescit with a dome stands on eight marble columns above a fountain, reached by an outside stair.
• Behind the arcades, 68 vaulted rooms, now craft workshops and cafés.
• Two gates, east and west, which is unusual for a han of this kind. The east gate is a tall block with a larger room above it.
• Ten shops open outwards to the street along the east side, five on each side of the main gate.
• Outside, plain cut yellow limestone, a cornice with stone rainspouts and a line of chimneys along the roof.

History of Büyük Han

1572–1579

Built as a caravanserai for merchants. The builder is given as Sinan Paşa; tradition also names Muzaffer Paşa, and the inscription panel over the east gate is blank.

1878

Converted into a prison and police station.

1903

The government leaves and the han is an inn again; the east arcades are extended to the road as shops.

1947–1962

Let room by room as homes. In 1954, 65 families lived in its 63 rooms.

1980s

Restoration restarts with Evkaf, to a project by the architect İlkay Feridun.

2000

On 27 October the first phase of the restoration opens.

2002

On 1 February the han opens as an arts centre.

Visiting Büyük Han

Allow about an hour. The han is in the walled city of Lefkoşa; a car park is about 50 metres away, and intercity buses stop at Girne Kapısı, about 550 metres on foot. Stone stairs at the south-east and north-west corners of the court lead up to the gallery. Rooms are let to makers of Cypriot crafts and the han still trades. Kumarcılar Hanı faces it across the square, and Selimiye Camii is a short walk away.

About the Büyük Han 3D model

The model is drawn from a published survey of the han, fitted to its outline on the map and to a published size of 50.67 by 45.25 metres. The parapet height, 9.3 metres, was measured twice from published photographs, against a person at a court pier and against the west gate, and the two agree. Plan and heights are good to about 5 to 10 per cent; nothing was measured on site. The south front and the roof are inferred, and modern fittings in the court are left out. Work continues.

Open the 3D model of Büyük Han

Monuments near Büyük Han

• Kumarcılar Hanabout 100 m northThe smaller han facing it across the square.
• Ledra Street Crossingabout 150 m south-westThe Lokmacı Kapısı crossing, reopened on foot in 2008.
• Bedestenabout 150 m eastA church turned Ottoman covered market.