A Research on Evaluation of Reconstruction Practices of Destroyed Cultural Heritage: Trabzon Case

Cultural heritages are historical and artistic assets that carry the traces of the past to the future and need to be protected. Cultural heritage in the historical environment is deteriorated or destroyed for various reasons. It is possible to revive the destroyed or damaged historical buildings that have a place in the urban memory in their original form in line with reliable documents, to exist within the urban identity and to carry them to the future, with the reconstruction technique, which is one of the conservation methods. However, some of the reconstruction practices carried out today are unoriginal and cause controversy. The problem of the study carried out in this direction is that the original textures of the destroyed historical buildings cannot be reflected because the reconstruction applications are not carried out in a systematic and controlled manner. The aim of the study is to determine evaluation criteria for reconstruction applications that can reflect the original identity of vanished or ruined cultural heritage. The scope of the study consists of examining the criteria put forward in the study through the reconstruction practices carried out in the City of Trabzon, which was determined as the material. The method of the study consists of four steps. These steps include literature research, making determinations on field work, and creating comparison analyzes and criteria. In this context, seven criteria were determined to be used in reconstruction applications and ten historical buildings that were reconstructed throughout the city of Trabzon were identified and evaluated. According to the determined data, general inferences were made about the reconstructions made in the city of Trabzon and suggestions were given for reconstruction applications by evaluating the determined criteria.