Luxury hotel amid Byzantine ruins stirs debate in İstanbul

The dispute pits government-backed developers of a site housing the luxury Four Seasons Hotel, occupying a converted, Ottoman-era prison, against critics who say work on a 60-room annex desecrate the remnants of a palace built by Constantine the Great in the fourth century. “It is right on top of the most important remains in the ancient city of Constantinople,” said Günhan Danışman, a member of the Chamber of Architects of Turkey. He drew a comparison to show how “unthinkable” it is to embark on such a project. “Go to the Roman Forum,” he said, “and start excavating to build a hotel.”

The location of the hotel complex in the Sultanahmet district -- a short walk from the domed Haghia Sofia Museum and the Blue Mosque -- underlines Turkey’s struggle to balance tourism and preservation. The government has lacked the resources or will to showcase and protect all of its world-class attractions, and now neglect, uncontrolled building and shoddy restoration work have degraded many historical sites in İstanbul, the center of great civilizations over the centuries.

“There’s very little that’s accessible,” said David Michelmore, a British archaeologist. “There are lots of things that you can’t get into and are not being promoted at all.”

That’s the crux of the Four Seasons case: A Turkish company, Sultanahmet Turizm A.Ş., made a deal with the government to build the annex and also develop an adjacent archaeological park that will bring to light remnants of the Great Palace of Roman and Byzantine emperors. They say the park, which is expected to open by the end of the year, would have been impossible without the funds generated by the hotel deal.

“In order to conserve a thing, you have to make use of it,” said developer Atilla Öztürk, who started work on the park in 1997 and on the hotel extension in 2006. “If somebody did not attempt to make that extension, we would not be able to see this area.”

Öztürk said the area used to look like a “junkyard” and that he had spent $14 million on the park so far, with at least $6 million to go. He has 25 archaeologists on his payroll and the İstanbul Archaeological Museum is overseeing the project. A Four Seasons spokeswoman in İstanbul declined comment. The role of the Toronto, Canada-based hotel chain in a case with nationalist overtones has intensified the dispute, with Milliyet, a Turkish newspaper, describing the hotel extension as an “historic wrong.”

In March, an administrative court ordered a halt to the extension project on the grounds of possible harm to cultural heritage. The Greater İstanbul Municipality and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism appealed to a higher panel and development continues at the site. The hotel and its annex, still under construction, sit atop or next to the ruins of palace walls, baths, wells and floors. The three buildings of the extension are perched on four-meter-high steel pylons, leaving intact remnants of ancient structures that are visible beneath.

Work on the archaeological park has yielded seventh and 10th century frescoes, a Byzantine cistern and a vaulted passage, an Ottoman cistern as well as fragments of household items that suggest the area was inhabited as long as 3,000 years ago.

The area incorporates what were believed to be the administrative departments of the palace as well as the remains of the Chalke Gate, the main entrance, and covers only about a fifth of what were believed to be palace grounds that stretched downhill to the Sea of Marmara.

In a May letter to İstanbul’s mayor, Francesco Bandarin, the Paris-based director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center, spoke of the need to “come to terms” with the Four Seasons extension. But Bandarin said, “A different solution could and should have been found to allow a full respect of the heritage values and at the same time ensure the economic viability of the hotel.”