Culture News Blog

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) Most tourists to Istanbul inevitablymake their way to its historic core along the Golden Horn, apeninsula rich in relics and monuments from the mighty Roman,Byzantine and Ottoman empires.

These days, the area is host to a modern-day battle over theexpansion of a five-star hotel amid the ruins of an ancient palace.

The dispute pits government-backed developers of a site housingthe luxury Four Seasons Hotel, occupying a converted, Ottoman-eraprison, against critics who say work on a 60-room annex desecratethe remnants of a palace built by Constantine the Great in thefourth century.

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee discussed concerns aboutIstanbul's historical locations at an annual meeting this week inQuebec City, Canada. The committee said it would give Istanbuluntil 2009 to design plans to protect the sites; failure to do socould land the city's cultural treasures to an endangered list.

The European Union has designated Turkey's biggest city as its''cultural capital'' in 2010, and being on the UNESCO danger listwould embarrass a country seeking entry to Europe's club.

The location of the hotel complex in Sultanahmet district ashort walk from the domed Haghia Sofia church and the Blue Mosque underlines Turkey's struggle to balance tourism and preservation.The government has lacked the resources or will to showcase andprotect all of its world-class attractions, and now neglect,uncontrolled building and shoddy restoration work have degradedmany historical sites in Istanbul, the center of greatcivilizations over the centuries.

That's the crux of the Four Seasons case: a Turkish company,Sultanahmet Turizm A.S., made a deal with the government to buildthe annex and also develop an adjacent archaeological park thatwill bring to light remnants of the Great Palace of Roman andByzantine emperors.

They say the park, which is expected to open by the end of theyear, would have been impossible without the funds generated by thehotel deal.

Ozturk said the area used to look like a ''junkyard'' and thathe had spent $14 million on the park so far, with at least $6million to go. He has 25 archaeologists on his payroll, and theIstanbul Archaeological Museum is overseeing the project.

Some Turkish and foreign experts say the work on the GreatPalace of the Roman and Byzantine empires generally meetsinternational standards, but critics insist the annex is an insultto Turkey's heritage and could end up damaging the archaeologicalsite.

In March, an administrative court ordered a halt to theextension project on the grounds of possible harm to culturalheritage. The Istanbul municipality and the Ministry of Culture andTourism appealed to a higher panel, and development continues atthe site.

The hotel and its annex, still under construction, sit atop ornext to the ruins of palace walls, baths, wells and floors. Thethree buildings of the extension are perched on four-meter-highsteel pylons, leaving intact remnants of ancient structures thatare visible beneath.

Work on the archaeological park has yielded 7th and 10th centuryfrescoes, a Byzantine cistern and a vaulted passage, an Ottomancistern as well as fragments of household items that suggest thearea was inhabited as long as 3,000 years ago.

The area incorporates what were believed to be theadministrative departments of the palace, as well as the remains ofthe Chalke Gate, the main entrance, and covers only about a fifthof what were believed to be palace grounds that stretched downhillto the Sea of Marmara.

In a May letter to Istanbul's mayor, Francesco Bandarin, theParis-based director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center, spoke ofthe need to ''come to terms'' with the Four Seasons extension.

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