The city that was
being erased

Kaleiçi — The Historical Core

Kaleiçi is Antalya's old city — a tightly woven neighbourhood of Roman foundations, Seljuk minarets, Ottoman courtyard houses and Byzantine fortifications. Despite being a UNESCO candidate heritage site, speculative restoration, inappropriate tourism infrastructure and surface-level renovation work continue to compromise its authenticity.

Ottoman Residential Fabric

Outside Kaleiçi, Muratpaşa and Kepez districts retain scattered Ottoman-period residential streets — two-storey stone and timber-frame houses with overhanging upper floors (cumba), central courtyards and carved limestone entrances. These unregistered structures have no legal protection and are routinely demolished for apartment blocks.

Key unregistered Ottoman streets to document: Balıkpazarı Sokak, Kışla Mahallesi (Kepez), Şehit Fethi Bey quarter (Muratpaşa). These areas are outside heritage zones and urgently need photographic survey and listing applications.

Early Republican Buildings

1920–1950 civic buildings — courthouses, post offices, schools, police stations — represent Antalya's nation-building era in built form. Many carry regional interpretations of the First National Architecture style: local limestone, flat roofs, elongated arched windows. Several have been vacated and left to deteriorate.

Threats & Pressures

• Speculative demolition: Unregistered historic buildings demolished overnight before listing applications can be processed
• Inappropriate restoration: Cement rendering over stone, modern windows replacing timber joinery, loss of spatial character
• Tourism monoculture: Kaleiçi converting entirely to short-let accommodation — loss of resident community and traditional uses
• Infrastructure pressure: Underground car parks and utility upgrades causing subsidence damage to historic foundations
• Neglect by public owners: State-owned historic buildings deteriorating because no ministry claims budget responsibility

What Can Be Done

Rapid photographic survey of unprotected historic streets before they are demolished is the most urgent need. Citizen documentation creates evidence that can support official listing applications (tescil başvurusu) submitted to the Regional Board for Conservation of Cultural Heritage (Kültür Varlıklarını Koruma Bölge Kurulu).

A tescil (listing) application requires documentation — floor plans, facade drawings, historic photographs, period evidence. Without documentation, there is no application. Without an application, there is no protection.