İmpressions of a marginal han building in Çorum : The Velipaşa Han and the Anadolu otel

Abstract

The Velipaşa Han, located in the dense commercial centre of the city of Çorum, can be considered the most important architectural monument of the city. The building, which was revealed to be built in the end of the 19th century, hosted many famous characters among whom are the journalists Refii Cevat Ulunay and Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın, the author Refik Halit Karay and the Princess Kadriye Hüseyin. The importance of the building comes from the planning and the facade characteristics which reflect the local inflences in contrast to the known types for the hans and hotels. Particularly with the similarities between the hotel part of the building, called “the Anadolu Otel”, and the traditional Çorum houses acquired a unique place for the building among other classical types. Discussion about the origin of the unique form of the building are still in the air, however it is known to belong to more recent times when it was rebuilt after a fire. The only source for the ground floor layout -which has almost lost the original form- is the narration of people who witnessed the use of the building starting from 1940s. The building, with these characteristics, constitutes to be one of the rare examples in Anatolia and undoubtedly deserves to be conserved. The first step to conservation naturally passes through the register, evaluation, interpretation and restitution studies for the building.