The Kayseri Covered Market is considered, according to sources, to be the largest historic covered market in Anatolia after the Istanbul Grand Bazaar. Although its exact founding date is unknown, its origins are traced back to the 15th–16th centuries; the bazaar expanded in subsequent centuries with the addition of new sections. Having suffered extensive damage in the fires of 1849 and 1870—particularly following the 1870 fire—the bazaar was rebuilt by the municipality, under the initiative of Osman Pasha of Maraş, as a stone-built, covered bazaar with 1,804 shops. The 1907 Ankara Province Yearbook records it as a large stone-built bazaar containing more than two thousand shops and stores.
Until the early years of the Republic, the Covered Bazaar was larger than it is today and extended all the way to Republic Square, the Clock Tower, and the area surrounding what is now the Bürüngüz Mosque. During the tenure of Governor and Mayor Nazmi Toker (1932–1936), a significant portion of the bazaar in that direction was demolished as part of the square’s expansion and urban planning efforts; Tol Çarşı was demolished in 1935–1936, and the vaults of some streets, such as Kazancılar, were opened up, while sound sections like Katrancılar were left untouched. Old photographs show that the Two-Doored Mosque—which would later be replaced by the Bürüngüz Mosque—was once intertwined with the old Kapalıçarşı fabric; however, with the demolition of the surrounding market sections, the mosque became a more independent structure on the edge of the square.
The bazaar consists of shops lined along streets that run north-south and east-west and intersect one another. Within the historic bazaar fabric are Hacı Efendi Bazaar (1844), Urgancılar, Bezciler, Börekçiler, Sipahi Pazarı, Gazezler/Kazzazlar, Terziler, Damgacılar, Kürkçüler, Debbağlar, Katrancılar, and Eskiciler—sections named after various trades and commercial sectors—were located within the historic bazaar fabric.
