Mansion History

The Mehmet Ali Aga Mansion and its History

The two-thousand year old heritage of Datça, which Strabo, the ancient Greek historian and geographer described as the “Place where God sent His children for whom he wished a long and healthy life,” was resurrected in the early 2000’s, much like a Phoenix rising from its ashes. The “Mehmet Ali Aga Mansion,” which is perched on the summit of the Reşadiye neighborhood from which the peninsula got its second name, or the “Kocaev” (The Big House) as the local people call it, has been faithfully restored and transformed into a center serving tourism and regional culture by providing the kinds of immaculate service suitable to this century.

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AGA AND HIS MANSION

When the Ali Agaki of Crete was granted the Datça peninsula from the sultan as a fief, he established a settlement from which he could easily dominate the area and carry out his administrative and military duties. This imposing building, facing the sea from the highest point of the Reşadiye neighborhood, is the mansion of the Tuhfezadeler family, whose members descend from Ali Agaki. The fact that the family is known as “Tuhfezadeler” probably derives from the fact that the Datça fief was given them as a present (in Arabic “tuhfe”).

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ITS ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE

The “Kocaev” is one of the few examples of Ottoman civilian architecture to have survived to our days and not just in Datça, but in the entire Mediterranean area of Turkey. It was designed as a two-storey building situated on spacious grounds. The ground floor has stone walls, while the north-facing façade includes a portico of stone arches. The floor above the portico consists of a hall encircled by wooden columns, leading to the five rooms of the mansion. The outer walls of the first floors are of stone, while the walls separating the rooms from each other and the common hall are wooden. Each room includes its own fireplace hearth. This floor also includes a traditional Turkish bath, a hammam with furnace and dome, and represents a small example of a typical Ottoman hammam.

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The 1800’s

The mansion known as “Kocaev” was built in the early 1800’s by the father of Tuhfezade Mehmet Ali Aga. Documents and contemporary testimony confirm that the most illustrious period of Kocaev was the time when Mehmet Ali Aga lived there. It was during those years that Aga was also serving as a mayor in Rhodes. When in the early 1950’s the buildings and grounds found themselves bereft of surviving members, the mansion, along with the rest of the estate, was sold. This began a period of continual change of ownership and functions. In the ensuing years it was used as a tobacco warehouse, a cinema, a school and a marriage hall. During those years the mansion suffered from modifications and even a partial collapse.

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The 2000’s

By the time the Kocaev was sold to the Pir family it was in very poor condition and was almost a ruin. Determined to preserve this priceless monument, the Pir family ensured that every stage of restoration work was carried out to align with the traces of the first and original structure of the building. To prevent further decay of the remains of the building, that by that time had become extremely fragile, the structure’s foundations were first encased in steel supports. An extensive carpentry workshop was established on the mansion’s grounds to aid in the restoration and repair of the mansion’s woodwork.

Kocaev has now been returned to its former days of glory. The five acres of garden and the new accommodations constructed of cut stone in the eastern wing have all been carefully designed and built to harmonize with the main building and have been carried out in a manner that not only preserves its two hundred year-long heritage, but also ensures that it accords with all of the advancements of the current and of the future.