Basmane Railway Station: Izmir-Kasaba (Turgutlu) line is one of the first lines designed after the construction of railway lines in the Ottoman Empire. It was understood by a British initiative for the construction of the line. The foundation of the line is laid in 1664 and officially opened in 1866. This line is the first railway line opened in Anatolia in the Ottoman Empire.
17 in Izmir. 19, the commercial mobility that began with the long-distance caravan trade from the 18th century onwards, and the socio-economic structure shaped by this process. century has become clear. During this period, İzmir was added to the outside world through the Levantine groups formed by the Europeans living in the city and the European merchants who came to the city temporarily; has also modernized its transportation, finance and communication systems within the framework of new developments. In addition to the new administrative structures in the urban space, the European influence, which is reflected as “architectural responses shaped by a Western-style understanding ın of insurance companies, maritime agencies, theaters, cinemas, banks, hotels, has revealed its presence in the field of transportation with the construction of railways and port facilities. The railway and port investments dominated by the British and French have been shaped as an attempt to carry out the commercial cycle in a faster-contemporary manner by transferring raw materials from Anatolia to the industrialized cities of Europe and marketing the products produced there again in these lands. The railways initiative in Izmir began with the construction of the Izmir-Aydin railway, which was created with a concession received by the British on 1856.
Gustave Eiffel's Signature
One of the most important stations of this line is Basmane Station, which is the starting point of the line. After the railway line was opened, the station was designed by the famous French architect Gustave Eiffel (the architect of the Eiffel Tower named after the tower) and built by the French firm Regie Generale at 1876. The building is similar to Lyon Station which was built on the same dates.
Alsancak Railway Station, which is located as a part of a campus and is characterized by iron shears reflecting the metallic spirit of the Industrial Revolution, provides access to the suburbs from the center through the Kemer-Şirinyer-Buca line as well as the starting point of the İzmir-Aydın line. Another relationship in this direction is the connection between the station and the railway station, which was initiated by the concession dated 1867 and which was built in parallel with the construction of the port which was completed in 1880. Another leg of the railway transportation to İzmir is İzmir-Kasaba line, which connects the city to the centers such as Kasaba (Turgutlu), Manisa, Soma, Alaşehir, Uşak and whose concession is given at 1863. The entrance gate of the line, which was initiated by the British and French initiatives and links the city to the fertile plains of Western Anatolia, is Basmane Station. It is possible to say that the area where the station is located also has a “door” identity which is reflected in the name of Çorakkapı Mosque. Remembering that Balıkesir Manisa Akhisar road, which constitutes one of the two important caravan routes to the city, reaches the city through the Kervanlar Bridge located in Kemer and leads to Kemeraltı, it will reveal the meaning of this positioning.
The railway architecture in the city shows the current trends in Europe, especially the railway buildings, and especially the British and French influences that prevailed during the construction process. Basmane Station was built as a hat end-of-line structure that meets the railway line paralel in parallel with the French orientation. The mass, aesthetic and technological solutions of the building are based in the West. However, it differs from the Alsancak Station, which was built in parallel with the British orientation in terms of environmental relations. The two railway stations have their own characteristics in terms of their architectural languages and structural institutions.
Basmane Train Station is constructed in a three-section, symmetrical and fictional elevation of the central section of the main entrance. The building program includes a waiting room, platforms and administrative offices, as well as workshops, housing units and service volumes. A rational approach is dominant in the station's interior solutions. There is a waiting room, administrative units and service volumes on both sides of the main hall accessed from the entrance. From the main hall to the platforms. The roof covering the platform section is carried by iron scissors with two flattened vaults passing through an opening of about twenty-three meters and having specific details for its period.
Neoclassical Architecture
In the photographs showing the first phase of the building, it is observed that the middle section is covered with a barrel roof, the stone walls are unglazed and there is an exit on the south side. In the photographs of the 1930s, it is seen that the middle section is covered by a cracked roof with a very steep slope. Although the functions differ in the interior, the facade shows absolute symmetry. The facades reflecting the Neoclassical tastes of the period, such as pediment, pilaster and wiping, were reflected on the facade. The long entrance facade directed to the square was enlivened by various fragments.
The central section with a steep roof is elevated and separated in a central structure with three floors. The inscriptions and symbols for the railway system are also on this part. In this section, where each floor is separated from each other by moldings, wall corners and arched entrance doors are weighted with cut stone strings, just like the points where the building steps onto the floor. In the side wings, the façade is divided into a pediment section and another section with a broken roof. The pediment sections located on either side of the high entrance part reveal their existence by slightly extending outwards.
Both the fact that it is a commercial gate that connects İzmir to its background, the mobility created by the İzmir International Fair and Kültürpark opened in 1936, and the presence of accommodation that focuses on this environment and gives the region the name of ler Hotels Region, are the importance of the Basmane Station. century as in the early Republican period has provided protection.
While the Republican ideal, which could be summarized as ör knitting Anatolia with iron nets y, lost its speed after the 1950s, Basmane Station entered a process of wear like other historical railway stations in the city; nevertheless, it continued to serve with various maintenance and repairs. A new process has started for Basmane Railway Station, like all railway structures, in which today the importance of railway ideal has been re-understood and the system has been renewed with modern technologies. In addition to being a yapı documentary structure in terms of transportation, trade and industrial history in of the city, Basmane Station, which is a bir memory structure that stores the memories of countless passengers coming to and from the city ”, should be reached with all these identities.
