ANKARA: Upper And Lower Fountains Re-Opened

UPPER AND LOWER FOUNTAINS RE-OPENED

BIAnet.org

Nov 30 2011
Turkey

Two historic fountains of the Habap village were restored upon the
efforts of the Hrant Dink Foundation. The fountains were now re-opened
in a ceremony attended by lawyer Fethiye Cetin, Governor Arslan,
Mayor Yanýlmaz and district headman Yarmadelen.

Habap/Palu – BÝA News Center30 November 2011, Wednesday The Habap
village (today Ekinozu) saw an opening ceremony that took the attendees
back in time to Fethiye Cetin’s grandmother Heranus (later on renamed
as Seher) who was exiled to the village 95 years ago. The restoration
of two historic wells was now finished after a two-year work carried
out by the Hrant Dink Foundation.

The restoration project was run on a voluntary basis by architects
Nihan Saðman, Mehmet Erkok and Savaþ Ekinci and art historian Ozge
Altýnkaya Erkok.

On Friday (25 November), the Lower and Upper Fountains were re-opened
in a ceremony attended by the Elazýð Provincial Administration
Secretary General, Nazif Bilginoðlu, the Kovancýlar District Mayor
Bekir Yanýlmaz and the Habap village head, Hayati Yarmedelen. The
restoration work was supported with monetary sources from the Ministry
of Culture, the Chrest Foundation, the Open Society Foundation,
General Energy and individual patron of arts.

Lawyer Fethiye Cetin said at the opening ceremony, “My grandmother
Heranuþ drank water from these fountains a hundred years ago”.

Students of the Habap Village Primary School contributed to the
ceremony by performing a traditional dance.

The restored fountains feature several springs and arches. Experts
see in the wells a classic example of Armenian architecture. The fact
that the village of Habap has got two wells suggests that the place
was a bigger settlement at the time the fountains were built. Today,
the village of Habap/Ekinozu comprises 200 buildings with a population
of 1,450 people.

Habap in the old times

Habap or Hebap (‘Havav’ in Armenian) was a place with 500 buildings
in Ottoman times. When the village was inhabited by Armenians it had
three churches, a monastery and two fountains. These two fountains
were called the Upper and the Lower Fountain.

An inscription on the Upper Fountain in Armenian points to the
year 1634.

In recent times, most of the buildings collapsed and the fountains
were not functioning any more. The fountains are still registered in
the name of the Halil Beyler and Rufekasý Beyler Foundation.

The water for the village comes from a very cold spring strong enough
to run a mill. It rises two miles off the village in a broad valley.

Since the well is located at a low level it has to be cleaned every
spring in order to avoid a reduction of water. The well that was
filled with soil in spring was cleaned every year after Easter. The
stream was running a few mills and once a week the gardens and fields
below the village were irrigated.

The fountains were sacred for the villagers. There were two sweet
water springs in the village. One was in the upper and one in the
lower part of the village. The water for the fountains came a very
long way through underground stone pipes and small cisterns. The
cisterns could be reached via a gallery behind the fountains. They
needed to be cleaned once a year.

The water of these fountains is cool in summer and lukewarm and
sweet in winter. The fountains and the surrounding floor were made
out of cut stones. (Dikran S. Papazyan, Badmutyun Palu Havav Kyuði,
[Palu Habap Village History] Beirut 1960). (BA/VK)

Click here to visit the photo gallery of the restored fountains of
“Grandmother Heranuþ”:

From: A. Papazian