The Village Chambers of Baskoy in Erzincan-Cayirli

Village chambers are the structures where passengers are welcomed, any and all requirements of the passengers are covered and which we encounter in small settlements such as village or town in Anatolia. These architecturally plain buildings are rich in social and cultural values. Village chambers built by the villages notables or village people are used as a common property of the village. These spaces generally consist of divisions such as room and barn for the animal of the coming guest. People in villages were used to gather in such rooms and have conversations in the years when communication means such as television and radio did not exist. It is known that those people whose financial situation was good had these rooms constructed and consequently, they have been used as common property of the village. However, the need felt for such rooms disappeared by depending on the settlement of transportation problem, immigration and technological developments. These rooms have an important place in Turkish people's architecture and culture as concrete spaces of the hospitality in terms of folkloric and artistic properties. In this study, three rooms examined in the district of cayirli in 2018 will be introduced. These rooms which were constructed in the same architectural properties as the whole district, were built by using rubble or pitch-faced stone as material in the single-layered, wooden ceiling style and masonry technique. In terms of cover layout, the ceiling of the Dursun Kocgil room differs from the other two rooms because it is covered with a swallow. Wood carriers and ornaments were found in Dursun Kocgil's room among the examined rooms. These ornaments, which exhibit a simple workmanship, are vegetable and geometrical ornaments in wood carving technique. No decorations have been found in other rooms. The reason for choosing Baskoy village chambers is that no study has been done on this subject by now. Three village chambers in Baskoy in Erzincan-caynth district were examined on-site. By discussing with the owners of the houses or the people of the villages, it was tried to date the rooms in the light of the general condition of the houses and whom they belong to. Apart from the structural features of the rooms, their folkloric features have also been discussed. In these places, information such as seating arrangement, refreshments, chat topics were obtained from the village's notables or village people. These rooms reflecting a similar typology throughout Turkey are the important structures whose folklore and architecture have begun to lose out within the cultural assets. By mentioning both the architectural purposes and the architectural features of the chambers, similar differences were also revealed among the Anatolian village chambers. These rooms that have not been a subject for any study previously will be introduced in terms of plan and space setup, material and technique, ornamental properties and folkloric features, and it is estimated that competent authorities will emphasize this subject in this regard. Re-functioning of these rooms which reflected the public folklore of the region is important for concretizing and protecting the place of such rooms within the cultural heritage in the sense of sustaining the social solidarity spaces and traditional culture. Today, the buildings are far from being places where the people of the village gather and entertain guests from outside. The rooms must be repaired in accordance with the original structure and thus re-functionalized and recovered.