Take up the drawbridge – retreat to Ada Ev

BODRUM – Hürriyet Daily News | 7/5/2010 12:00:00 AM | 

The only one-room hotel in Turkey, Ada Ev is a place appealing to the discerning couple or solo traveler, who want to stay somewhere vastly different to hotels.

Ortakent

The geographical center of the Bodrum Peninsula is not Bodrum, but further west- around the aptly named Ortakent, where the three roads from the three main towns of the Peninsula meet: Bodrum, Yalıkavak and Turgutreis.  Ortakent’s beachside Yahşi and Bitez bays being just over the hill complete the feeling that the village of Ortakent is central to everywhere.

Ada Ev

Yet turn off the main street by the restored old stone post office and wind up along the twisting cobbled streets of the village and suddenly one feels miles away, as children play on the street and housewives chat over balconies and garden walls covered with creepers.

Turn one more corner and come to a space opening out before an imposing wooden gate, above which high Stone walls tower. Here sits “kule ev,” or tower house, the original tower house of the peninsula, Mustafa Paşa’s former mansion, now the unique retreat of Ada Ev, the only one-room hotel in Turkey.

Vedat Semiz is the visionary behind the story of the purchase and restoration of the oldest building, after the Bordum Castle, on the Peninsula. The Ottoman watchtower house was built in the 1600’s, and seems to have taken the Castle defensive features as a model – with its battlements, drawbridge and even the battlement protected gap to pour boiling oil over attackers at the door.

Vedat Semiz found the tower house in 1993 and he says, “It was love at first sight.” He bought it, even though it was in a near ruined state with a collapsed roof and holes gouged in the walls and floors by would-be treasure hunters. Yet many of the most beautiful features remained, the elegant pointed Ottoman chimney place; the unique stamped frescoes on the walls made of wheat chaff and plaster; the fine wooden carved cupboards, shelves and decorations could still be discerned; and the fine sturdy stone walls of course still stood. He brought down a team of restoration experts from Topkapı Palace, and hired the Bodrum-based architect with the most experience in stone houses, Ahmet İğdirligil, also known as “Şans Ahmet,” meaning lucky Ahmet. They started the long project of restoring the building. At the same time he was building Ada hotel in Göltürkbükü, a miniature stone Ottoman palace, so the techniques and skills were shared between the two – the old and the new.

The tower house stands in its original garden area with outside hamam, and walls now holding the companion restaurant Ada Sofra. The gardens are full of Bougainvillea, cactus and flowering shrubs that frame the views over the village to the olive tree and oak scattered hills opposite. Surprisingly, there is little housing in view, and at sunset the light glows everywhere, refracting off the flowers and stonework.

Step down garden steps then up more stone steps to the tower house door, and you find yourself walking across a genuine drawbridge complete with chains and stone ledges. The wooden door opens to the shaded coolness beyond a delicate hand carved wooden screen.

The “one-room” is almost a misnomer, as there are two different levels to the house and alcoves a step up from the main sitting areas. In addition there is the third partial level, the characteristic “musandira” balcony that is accessed by steep steps from the upper floor.

The entrance level is the sitting room area, where sofas sit in front of an ornate fireplace, a small beautifully wrought writing table in olive wood, and the perfect miniature marble hamam on one side, and a very modern bathroom shower and toilet on the other side similarly wrought in marble.

Ascend the steep steps to the sleeping and rest area, and find a paşa’s domain. In an alcove with three windows looking to the sea, the hills and the windmills above, sits a luxurious double bed that can be screened off with curtains. In the opposite corner is a very inviting corner alcove with low cushions and again two windows looking south and north – one to the seas and one to the hills. This corner is almost impossible to resist – it begs one to take a book and curl up, winter or summer, or any season. In the center of the main room are again sofas sitting in front of a fireplace, while along the entire wall behind them are the traditional cedar wood cupboards holding luxurious towels, bedsheets, bathrobes, slippers and even a minibar tucked into one cupboard. There is more than ample hanging space, and Semiz proudly displayed his collection of the elaborate gold and silver thread embroidered red velvet “Temel Deveren,” the traditional dress of young Bodrum women on their Henna night before marriage.

The detail and care in the finish is apparent in every corner, inside and out. The frescoe stamps were copied then reproduced in new plaster, imitating the original techniques; the remains of the original wooden decorations were taken and copied by carpenters in Istanbul; the cupboards and shelves were reproduced again in cedar- the sweet cedar tang meets the nose when the cupboards open; the new roof and ceiling beams and floors were fitted exactly as the old were, and the window frames and shutters are perfect copies of the traditional originals.

It is more than apparent that this was Vedat Semiz’s private house for years, before he decided to open it for public use, restoring the garden and building the restaurant, Ada Sofra, which opened in May 2009.

Update: December 2021 – Ada Sofra is now permanently closed and I’m not sure how this Tower is being used.