Monumental portal

A monumental portal, known in Turkish as taç kapı, is the large entrance composition that marks the main door of madrasas, caravanserais, mosques and hospitals. The doorway is never designed alone; it is framed by bands of carving, set into a deep niche and crowned with a hood, all treated as one piece. It is often where a building states its identity and its patron most clearly.

Parts of a portal

• Pishtaq: the rectangular outer frame, usually taller than or projecting from the facade wall.
• Borders: successive carved bands of geometric or floral ornament inside the frame.
• Portal niche: the recessed bay, usually under a pointed arch.
• Hood: the covering of the niche, which may be muqarnas, fluted or plain.
• Side niches, colonnettes and the inscription panel.
• Door opening: spanned by a flat lintel, a depressed arch or a pointed arch.

Portals in Turkish architecture

In Anatolian Seljuk buildings the portal is the most intensely worked part of the facade; the remaining walls stay fairly plain while the ornament gathers here. In the Ottoman period the composition generally becomes more restrained, with calmer proportions.

Portals in surveys and restoration

With fine carving, inscriptions and muqarnas in one place, the portal is usually the most time-consuming part of a measured survey. Surface erosion, lost fragments of the borders and readings of the inscription are recorded on separate sheets. Orthophotos produced by photogrammetry document the ornament and give a sound basis for completing missing pieces in restitution drawings.