Saray Hotel

Saray Hotel

You are standing in front of an old kortejo, which was restored and converted into a hotel: Saray Hotel.

The street formerly known as Kececiler Street is where Saray Hotel is located; it was lined with kortejos on both sides, which were later called family houses. Literally meaning courtyard, kortejos were sort of a communal living houses. Kortejos include just one entrance gate, a common yard, and two-storey rooms surrounding this yard; each of these rooms in kortejos were homes for Jewish families.

Local author Resat Karakuyu wrote a novel involving Kahraman Street and its residents, shedding light onto all these streets in this neighbourhood: 'Despite its poor appearance, this place has love, respect, solidarity, and cooperation, along with a passion for everything beautiful: fairy tales, art, theatre, storytellers, Karagoz, music. Those who have a gramophone, which are very few in numbers, would play it for everyone to listen at night; sometimes you hear an ode by Hafiz Burhan, and sometimes you'll hear songs from a Jewish house by Tino Rossi, Enrico Caruso, Benjamino Gigli, or an aria by Feodor Shaljpin.'