The Yakupoğlu Konak: An Old Turkish House at Sürmene Kastil

Abstract

Ottoman town houses of the later 19th century still exist in considerable numbers throughout the bounds of the Empire, and a number of them have received the attention of students. Remains of houses of an earlier date are much less common, and the development of the country house or konak in the years succeeding the age of castles is as yet imperfectly understood.Although the rich and fertile lands of the Empire of Trebizond had been firmly under Ottoman control since the end of the 15th century, many castles were still inhabited in the 19th century. The majority of the many country houses that remain along the shore of the Black Sea near Trebizond (Trabzon) axe no more than seventy-five years old. Not far from Trebizond itself are the foundations and slight ruins of a 16th or 17th century konak, the proper study of which would entail excavation. The members of the 1958 Walker Trust Expedition had, however, the opportunity of visiting a konak older than most of the rest, built at about three miles east of Sürmene in the village of Sürmene Kastıl. (Kastıl is not a word of Turkish origin, and is perhaps derived from “castello”, a memorial of Genoese and Venetian trading interests in the middle ages.) The exact history of the konak is unknown, but the villagers agree that it was built by a member of the family of Yakupoğlu (a surname borne by the present occupants, and by many others in the area) about 150 years ago.