A comparative architectural investigation of the Middle Byzantine courtyard complexes in Açiksaray - Cappadocia: questions of monastic and secular settlement

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2010

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Öztürk, Fatma Gül

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This dissertation investigates a middle Byzantine (10th-11th c.) typology, the rock-cut Courtyard Complexes, spread throughout Cappadocia in central Turkey, with a special focus on the Açıksaray Group. Usually organized around three sided courtyards, these complexes stand either within an ensemble or in isolation. Nevertheless, the concentration of complexes is remarkable on strategic points near fortresses or military roads. Courtyard Complexes have large receptional suites as well as utilitarian spaces such as kitchens, stables and apparently multi-functional rooms all carved around a courtyard. The majority of the complexes have their own churches also carved in the rock mass. High decorated façades adorn the Courtyard Complexes and make them visible from a considerable distance. Because of the distinctive elaborate design, and the large number of still standing examples, as well as the communal life style that they indicate, these Cappadocian complexes have attracted scholarly attention in both monastic and secular Byzantine studies. Consequently, it was necessary for the dissertation to reconsider both religious and secular communities and their physical expressions in the form of monasteries and various dwelling types of the era. On the other hand, the idiosyncratic volcanic landscape and carved architecture required an extensive comparative architectural investigation of all Courtyard Complexes known so far in Cappadocia. Based on the results coming out from the contextual studies and architectural analysis this dissertation proposes aristocratic families with a military function on this border land of Byzantine as the initial inhabitants of the Courtyard Complexes. The Açıksaray Group in particular, with the paucity of its churches contrasting its elaborate stables, bears the traces of a secular medieval community of some importance.

Subject Keywords

Architecture., History of architecture.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12611990/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/19576

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

F. G. Öztürk, “A comparative architectural investigation of the Middle Byzantine courtyard complexes in Açiksaray - Cappadocia: questions of monastic and secular settlement,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2010.