Kâmil Pasha, the then-Governor of Aidin Vilayet, held a meeting with the prominent people of İzmir on 1 August 1900.[3] It was decided a clock tower to be built in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Abdul Hamid II's accession to the throne.[3] The clock tower was designed by the LevantineFrench architect Raymond Charles Péré.[3] The groundbreaking ceremony of the construction was held on 1 September 1900.[3] The tower was completed in August 1901 and officially inaugurated on 1 September 1901, the 25th anniversary of the sultan's accession to the throne.[3]
The top of the tower was destroyed in a magnitude 6.4 earthquake on 31 March 1928 and again in a magnitude 5.2 earthquake on 1 February 1974.[3][4] During the protests against the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, the clock of the tower was stolen.[5][6] The tower underwent restoration in 2019.[7][8]
Architecture
The tower, which has an iron and lead skeleton, is 25 m (82 ft) high and features four fountains (şadırvan), which are placed around the base in a circular pattern.[2][3] The ground area of the tower is 81 m2 (870 sq ft)[3] The tower has an octagonal plan and four floors.[2][3] It was made of marble and stone.[2] The tower has four clocks with a diameter of 75 cm.[3] There is a bell on the fourth floor which is carried by twelve columns.[3] There were tughras and Ottoman coats of arms on four sides of the tower.[3] After the proclamation of the republic, they were engraved and replaced with stars and crescents.[9]
^Uluengin, Mehmet Bengü (February 2010). "Secularizing Anatolia tick by tick: Clock towers in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic". International Journal of Middle East Studies. Vol. 42, no. 1.
^ abcdefghijklYetkin, Sabri. "Saat Kulesi" (in Turkish). Ahmet Piriştina City Archives and Museum. Archived from the original(PDF) on 10 August 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
^Özkan, Çetin; Kaya, İbrahim (August 2011). "İşte saat, işte tarih, işte tanık". NTV Tarih (in Turkish). pp. 6–7. ISSN1308-7878.