Safranbolu House Lamp

Very close to the center of the Old Town, stands proud, the largest Konak of the town, The Asmazlar Havuzlu Konak now serving as a beautiful boutique hotel. The rooms are traditionally decorated and preserved. The large lounge has a pool that you can enjoy sitting around and drinking coffee. The Konak rooms are all beautifully furnished to mirror the image of almost a couple of centuries ago. Peace and quiet is the main theme of the place, with a lovely restaurant out in the back garden, with many colorful flowers and shadows of old old trees.

The name of the town derives from saffron, since Safranbolu was a trading place and a center for growing saffron.Today saffron is still alive at the village of Davutobas which is 22 km.east of Safranbolu and probably one of the best quality saffron at the world. The winter side of town is naturally well hidden and protected in a valley. For hundreds of years, surrounded by prosperous agricultural fields and situated on the eastern trade route, the town was conquered by many armies including the Seljuks, Isfendiyars and Candars. The city was captured by the Ottomans in 1392. Because of the strategic location and unparalleled tradition, Safranbolu could stay out of the great technological and demographic change of Turkey in the past few decades and therefore is one of the very few towns that achieved this.

The Old Town preserves many old buildings, with 1127 registered historical artifacts. These are: 1 private museum, 25 mosques, 5 tombs, 8 historical fountains, 5 Turkish baths, 3 caravanserais, 1 historical clock tower, 1 sundial and hundreds of houses and mansions. These houses are perfect examples of old civil architecture reflecting the Turkish social life of the 17-19th centuries. Also there are mounds of ancient settlements, rock tombs and historical bridges. The Old Town is situated in a deep ravine in a fairly dry area in the rain shadow of the mountains. The New Town can be found on the plateau about two kilometers west of the Old Town.

Safranbolu was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1994 due to its well-preserved Ottoman era houses and architecture.

Information about Safranbolu

Hand-made Safranbolu House measures approximately 10" x 5" and stands 7.5" tall. The piece has an electrical wire for Turkish/European electrical outlets and will require an adapter in the US. As with all handmade pieces, the items are not identical and will have some minor differences in finish of the wood that make each piece unique. The quality that makes the items in our Safranbolu Gift Shop special is the fact that each piece is hand-made in the town of Safranbolu and they are not a mass-manufactured gift shop item