Standing in the heart of Roman Constantinople, next to Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar and its open air market of secondhand books and manuscripts, the Beyazit State Library demonstrates that a 19th-century Ottoman edifice can retain its character and still serve the public on a daily basis.

The oldest public library in Turkey, the Beyazit State Library was founded by Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II in 1884 by converting a few buildings of a 16th-century complex that contained a mosque, a caravansary with stables, a hospice and a soup kitchen for the poor. The caravansary and the attached stables, with their multi-domes and a multicolored roof, were turned into the library and a wooden cabinet — made by Abdulhamid II whose skills in carpentry matched his mastery in political chessboard — was put in the main room.

The restoration of the library was carried out with a light and minimalist touch; it made a functional rearrangement of interior spaces and added only a few items, such as display cases for books and modern lighting.

“The aim was not only to save the building but the books and manuscripts,” Hande Pusat, the design director of Tabanlioglu Architects who carried out the renovation project, told Al-Monitor. “The Ottoman structures were damaged by the Marmara earthquake in 1999.”