Sivas Seljuk Medreses

Three 13th Century Seljuk Medreses Facing One Another On A Single Square, With A Fourth And The Great Mosque Nearby; On The UNESCO Tentative List · Sivas, Sivas

Sivas was one of the great Seljuk cities, and for about sixty years in the thirteenth century its rulers and viziers competed to build schools in it. The result is a single square in the middle of a working provincial city with three of them facing each other across it: the Sifaiye, a hospital-school of 1217 with the tiled tomb of the sultan who founded it; the Buruciye of 1271; and the Cifte Minareli of the same year, of which only the enormous twin-minareted facade survives, standing on its own like a stage set. A short walk away is the Gok Medrese, the most elaborate of them, its portal carved and tiled to a degree that is hard to credit. Nowhere else in Anatolia has this concentration. The city around them is plain, cold in winter and largely unvisited by foreigners, and the buildings are floodlit at night, which is when the square is at its best. Divrigi is three hours away in the same province.

Sifaiye ve Cifte Minare Meydani, Sivas Merkez, Sivas, Sivas, Turkiye

The square is open at all hours and the buildings are floodlit at night. The medreses keep daytime hours - the Sifaiye and Buruciye courtyards have operated as tea gardens and craft shops, the Gok Medrese has been under restoration at times, and the Cifte Minare survives as a facade only. The Great Mosque is a working mosque. Winter here is severe.

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