The Great Stone Arch
The monumental arch carrying the bridge across Gökdere is the most impressive surviving expression of Irgandı’s engineering.
- Material: Masonry and stone
- Form: Principal single-span arch
- Setting: Gökdere Valley
Irgandı Bridge belongs to the period when Bursa was one of the most important political and commercial centres of the early Ottoman state.
After the Ottoman conquest of Bursa in 1326, the city expanded rapidly beyond its fortified Byzantine citadel. Mosques, külliyes, markets, caravanserais, hamams and commercial streets gradually transformed the surrounding valleys and hillsides.
One of these expanding routes crossed Gökdere, a stream descending from the slopes of Uludağ and forming a natural division between parts of the developing city.
In 1442, during the reign of Sultan Murad II, the wealthy merchant Hoca Muslihuddin, son of Irgandılı Ali, commissioned an extraordinary bridge at this location.
Documentary evidence suggests that the builder was Timurtaş, son of Abdullah. Instead of creating a simple stone crossing, the project incorporated a complete line of commercial premises above the bridge.
The original arrangement contained 16 units on each side. These are generally described as 31 shops and one mescit, while additional vaulted spaces around the bridge structure served functions associated with storage, animals and commercial activity.
Merchants could therefore cross Gökdere, purchase goods, conduct business, store merchandise and participate in the commercial life of Bursa without leaving the bridge itself.
The monument suffered repeated damage over the following centuries. A major flood partially damaged it during the eighteenth century, while the catastrophic 1855 Bursa earthquake caused much more serious destruction.
During the later nineteenth century, the commercial structures above the bridge took on a different appearance, with rows of timber shops creating a more open bazaar.
Another major disaster came in 1922, during the final stages of the Turkish War of Independence, when retreating occupation forces destroyed part of the bridge.
The damaged crossing was reconstructed in 1949, but without the historic commercial buildings that had made Irgandı so distinctive.
Conservation studies eventually led to a more ambitious reconstruction. The project completed in 2004 restored the concept of the historic bazaar bridge, returning workshops and commercial spaces to the deck.
Irgandı once again became simultaneously a bridge, pedestrian street, craft centre and historic attraction— an identity remarkably close to the principle on which it had been founded more than five centuries earlier.
