The uncertain future of the thousand-yr-antique mosques and churches of Antioch ravaged through the earthquake

Five months after the earthquake that struck Turkey, a meticulous reconstruction is attempted within the vintage metropolis, a beacon of the Mediterranean.

With a black brush, in clumsy handwriting, the vintage priest drew a caution on the cracked partitions of his shack: “12 youngsters were born here! Don’t touch this residence“. Vahit Baklaci, 82, returns each day to his birthplace inside the coronary heart of antique Antakya, the wrong way up for the reason that February 6 earthquake that devastated southern Turkey and Syria, killing at the least 55,000 people. But historical Antioch, a stone’s throw from Syria, is not just any locality, insists the old prelate.

«Antakya has existed for hundreds of years. Look: two mosques that dated from the beginnings of Islam, each destroyed. And there, two 2000-yr-old churches, from the time of Jesus… also destroyed: that’s why you need to be cautious with these locations».

Prior to the disaster, Turkey’s Culture Ministry had listed 719 homes. When the diggers went into motion, first to find the our bodies, then to clean the rubble, he had notices published to guard those who have been nonetheless standing: “do not contact with out permission».

A consultant of the ministry, status in the dust in a fluorescent vest and construction helmet, ensures compliance with the instructions: “If it’s too broken we can’t do some thing, however whilst feasible we demolish stone through stone“, she says on condition of anonymity. Six groups like his patrol the old city. “We had approximately fifty at the begin“, she specifies.

In total, the successive earthquakes of February 2023 could have precipitated more than 50,000 deaths in Turkey and Syria. Hatay province changed into one of the toughest hit. OZAN ​​KOSE / AFP

Marseille tiles

The saved stones are stored on a reserved web site north of Antakya, taken care of, categorized and numbered for future recovery. Talking approximately the future in this city in ruins, where you stroll on collapsed tiled roofs, step over steeples, stroll around flattened minarets and go stairs that pass as much as the sky is a assignment.

Overwhelmed, Gokhan Ergin choices up one of the orange tiles that litter the floor. Made in Marseille, inside the south of France, they have been imported in massive portions by means of the Ottomans and then by way of the French, from the time of the mandate to the start of the 20th century.

«We are on the first locations of residence of the city. These lovely houses housed captivating lodges and restaurantssays the architect, who has restored lots of them and is aware of their mysteries, from the doors painted blue to discourage scorpions to the immortals carved above the doorway arches. “It’s like when you discover a work of artwork, you stock it to defend it in a museum. You must do the equal thing here: these homes are of the equal significance. It’s not simply dust and stone“, pleads the 40's. “It’s dwelling records here».

Gokhan Ergin points out the oldest homes which withstood the successive earthquakes in February a great deal higher: “due to the fact the planks and wooden inserted between the earthen brick systems, for elasticity, made it viable to face up to the shock“, he explains.

During its history, the metropolis of Antioch has suffered a huge quantity of earthquakes. The deadliest happened in the 12 months 526 with 250,000 deaths reported. OZAN ​​KOSE / AFP

“Plastic Restoration”

«Those which have been broken have regularly fallen victim to the crumble of their neighbours, which have been poorly restored.“, he assures. His, he indicates with delight, nonetheless have their windows and glazing almost intact.

Crossing Kurtulus Avenue, the main artery of Antakya, formerly Herod Street in which the synagogue and the oldest mosque in the area are located, Habib-i Nejjar, constructed on an antique pagan temple converted into a church in the time of the first Christians, a team from the Istanbul Technical University is wearing out its personal surveys. For Umut Almaç, professor of architecture inside the recuperation department, at least 8 hundred extra homes might have deserved to be included. “It’s the hassle of the area, there are so many homes that should be saved“, he we could go.

In front of a former luxurious inn, with partitions of vulgar collapsed breeze blocks, the expert also rails towards “plastic restorationspracticed ten or two decades in the past to attract travelers. “We centered at the facade, with out respecting the indoors structures of the constructing».

On February 6, tens of hundreds of buildings for that reason tumbled in some tens of seconds inside the south of Turkey. Umut Almaç now needs the reconstruction to transport quicker, when others, like Gokhan Ergin and the old priest Vahit, denounce the brutality of the diggers inside the vintage city. “But I don’t suppose you can circulate the stone blocks every other way», notes the university.

A big majority of Antioch turned into destroyed within the earthquake. The traces of fourteen centuries of records have been decreased to dirt. OZAN ​​KOSE / AFP