Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 14-15 (1969-70) (Pécs, 1974)

Helytörténet - Kováts, Valéria: Török hódoltsági épület Szigetváron

182 KOVÁTS VALÉRIA from this tradition even in the case of Szigetvár. All over the conquered territories of the empire we may experience that the Csman Turkish way of building and settlements became prevailing. The single communities and town were built or rebuilt according to their own need. -As it is to be read in some description, the building in the Bástya street would have been a circumcisorium. This ritual act of the oriental religions takes an important place in the ideology of the Mohammedan reunion too. To the ceremony of circumcision they did not erect a separete building but they performed this operation in one of the premises of the mosque in each town. In the little town Szigetvár of a strong military character it would be causeless to suppose a separate building to this ceremony, there is no proof to this. Likewise would be exaggerated to imagine a liberary in the case of Szigetvár. There was no need to preserve a few of books, manuscripts owned by some mosques or medresses in a separate building, some shelves in the mosque

. or medresse itself were sufficient to them, Evliia Chelebi mentions a monastery in his description as. an important building of Szigetvár. There is no trace of it in the map of Anguissola. Presumably it was destroyed already or it was not commemorated after the reoccup^tion since it might have been a quite unimportant building. Beside the common premises the monasteries are unimaginable without cells. In the Turkish building in the Bástya street there are no traces of these to be found thus we are not able to accept this function. We may look for our building among the types of dwelling houses. In,Hungary it did not remain any dwelling house out of the era of Turkish occupation, only some wall relics survived the years after the occupation. The size of the numerous existing even inhabited houses of the Balkan and Turkey, their structure of two levels are similar to the building in Szigetvár, but their story part with the balcony, mostly made of wood have not just the same type as the house in the Bástya street. In the building in Szigetvár we do not find the slightest trace of place dividing neither in the lower nor in the upper level. The placing of the windows and the niches of the story room refer unambiqous to an undivided place. All these are however inconsistent with a dwelling house. This contradiction is proved by the fact of having found no mark of fire and no possibility of heating at all. The extremely strong and well built state, the expensive manufacturing of the building are also contrary to a dwelling house, taking into consideration its suburban location. Newertheless we have to take this as proved on the basis of the general plan of Anguissola, as well as that of our observations at the archeological excavations during the last years. According to the general plan the little Turkish building stood in the one-time suburb, just beside the town inhabited by the Turks, in the vicinity of the roads connecting Szigetvár with Pécs and Kanizsa two important towns of Transdanubia as well as with Siklós situated southward. The location, the exposure, the strong construction, the split-level structure of the building, the niches on the story serving for the placing of different instruments allow us to come to the conclusion that this little Turkish building would have been an accomodation to the foreigners, the merchants visiting Szigetvár, that is a caravanserai. To the remained small building might have been detached some more wooden edifices, the traces of these got already totally lost in the corse of the different earth-moving works. The story part of the building might have been a quarters where the foreigners placing their luggages under theirs heads slept along the walls. The groundfloor place was presumably an inn or stock-room. To the building might have belonged a bigger parcel with drinking fountains, barns, sheds, and with places to the accomodation of carts and animals. The supposition of a caravanserai is proved by the uncovered four fountains of the Turkish era in the vicinity of the building in the year 1968. Beside the little house in the Bástya street in Szigetvár it remained no other building of similar typ in Hüngary, but we suppose that we can find its type yet in another territory having been stand under the rule of the Turkish empire. We may give a resolute anwer to this, if publications will come out about the less important architectural material of the everyday life too.