The Hafız Ahmet Ağa Square Fountain is a 19th-century square fountain located in a park near the Atatürk Bridge (Unkapanı Bridge) on the shores of the Golden Horn in Istanbul. It was commissioned by Kapanî Hafız Ahmet Efendi in 1817.
It is made of limestone.1 It has four facades. The corners are rounded. The marble-clad front facade features four recessed columns. There is an arched niche at each of the fountain’s rounded corners and another between the two columns in the center of the front facade. The oval rosettes above the niches at the rounded corners bear the inscription “Maşallah” within a circular frame. Above the niche in the center of the front facade is a four-line inscription.2
The fountain is located right next to the Süleyman Subaşı Mosque. During road-widening work on the Eminönü-Unkapanı route in the 1950s, the mosque was demolished; however, the fountain was spared demolition because it stood right on the edge of the road boundary. When construction began on the Unkapanı Textile Merchants’ Market (İMÇ), the fountain—which was situated right in the middle of the area that had been turned into a construction site due to the market’s construction and the bridge access roads— was removed from its original site in 1965 and reinstalled in 1968 upon completion of the bazaar’s construction.3
Date of Construction: H.1233 / M.1817–1819
Inscription:
Masha’Allah
By the grace of Allah, the
Almighty granted success and made this delightful place flourish
For the sake of Allah’s pleasure, the benefactor
created this out of love for the two Imams
Kapanî Hacı Hafız Ahmed Ağa
—may his name be remembered until the Day of Judgment
Upon seeing this complete inscription, Kenzî
said, “May the souls of the martyrs of Karbala rejoice.”
