Los castles they usually evoke luxury, size or power. There are countless cases of European sites in which the legacy of these old structures is used to promote local tourism, converting them for dissimilar uses such as museums or boutique hotels. There is something about the extravagance and opulence of castles that makes them utterly timeless, objects of desire and connotation of tranquility despite what is often a past riddled with conflict and violence.
It is that opulent evocation that led brothers Mehmet and Mezher Yerdelen, two Turkish real estate developers, to build a sprawling town, dubbed Burj Al Babas, with 732 mini-castles near the Black Sea.
At the time, it made sense: Turkey was one of the stars of the international markets, an emerging economy of more than 80 million inhabitants, attached to Europe and under the leadership of the still moderate Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Ideal destination to attract real estate investors looking for opportunities and tourists longing for new destinations in the forests and beaches of the Black Sea.
The Sarot Group, led by the Yerdelen brothers and their partner Bülent Yılmaz, carefully chose the location for their new “kingdom”: the Roman spa town of Mudurnu, known and appreciated for its hot springs and imposing healing water basin. Each villa would have underfloor heating and Jacuzzis on all levels, further reinforcing the idea of luxury, especially targeting the fat fortunes of the Middle East, just a few hours by plane. A sumptuous “gateway” to Europe.
But the storm came. Recession, failed coup and institutional chaos, increased terrorist attacks and a president, Erdogan, increasingly hostile to the West. The Turkish dream has lost its shine, and the pandemic has completely clouded any wave of tourists. The developers were forced to declare bankruptcy.
Investors and buyers later squeezed some $200 million out of the project, which didn’t help Sarot Group’s hopes of recovery. The ancient Roman valley, dotted with hot springs and petrodollar mansions, has become a gloomy, half-finished town littered with abandoned structures and discarded building materials.
From afar, the gray roof tile looks like something out of a Disney movie. However, as you get closer, Burj Al Babas exudes a disturbing post apocalyptic feelingwith rows of partially completed castles, irregular landscapes and no signs of life. The empty town is creepyas if it were a resplendent city devastated by war.
Son over 700 multi-storey castles, of which, as of 2019, less than half had been sold. The architecture and ornamentation is of Gothic inspiration, and includes arches, vaults and bridges. The almost identical castles are lined up side by side along carefully laid out alleys, intended to be covered with trees and exquisite landscaping. Hardly any of the gardens made it to the landscaping phase of the project, giving the project its cool post-war feel.
Located in a huge valley at the base of the mountains of northwestern Turkey, in winter Burj Al Babas is covered with a blanket of white snow giving it a fairytale appearance. Today, it is nothing more than a frustrated dream.