Osmangazi, Bursa

Osmangazi is the biggest and central city of Bursa Province which is the fourth biggest province in Turkey.With 700.000 population, Osmangazi is the biggest districtof Bursa and the 8th biggest city of Turkey as well.

Within the boundaries of Osmangazi, that has the greatest part of the Ottoman city features and is on the point of conveying past to future with approximately 1800 registered historical buildings.

Osmangazi, without a doubt, has a special place among the cities where history makes itself felt in every step taken. The people who lived in Anatolia have a history built upon honor together with sorrow and happinnes and it has taken its shape here, on these lands. And yet there are only a few cities on earth where the natural beauties bestowed by God are blended with historical structure as much as it is in this city and where they embrace one another that closely.

The district of Osmangazi, where you feel the heartbeats of a civilization from Rome to Byzantium, from Seljukians to Ottomans every single moment, is a city centre which accommodates, preserves and keeps alive the historical and the cultural heritage for centuries. A person looks like the city he lives in and acquires the identity of it throughout his life. Living a life in such a city makes one feel that he is not leading a life in vain; but he had a past and a future about which he has the right to convey his ideas. A couple of eyes knowing to look at the surroundings with a sigh feel the heartbeats of magnificent civilization every moment in such a city. We will build the future, full of hope and welfare, on the basis of the values we have inherited from our ancestors. Bursa is such a city. And Bursa means Osmangazi; Osmangazi means Bursa. The heart of Bursa beats in Osmangazi.

Osmangazi is just like a living museum with its historical places. It is posible to meet shuddering tales conveyed today with its constructions dating back to very early times in almost every corner of it.

The first marks of the Ottoman Empire exist within Osmangazi where it extended from the foot of Uluda_ (Grand- Mountain) to Bursa plain. Osmangazi is the biggest central administration body of Bursa and 8th biggest district of Turkey with a population of 750.000 (2007) inhabitants.

Within the boundaries of Osmangazi, where has the greatest part of Ottoman city features and is on the point of conveying past to future with “The Project of Enliveying Osmangazi (Bursa) Road of History and Culture”, there are approximately 1800 registered historical buildings. Bursa is known as “The City of The Sultans”, the first six Sultans lived here as well as “The First Capital of the Ottomans”. The city is not about the tombs, the mosques, the Turkish baths, the bridges, the fountains, the madrasahs or the ruins but also about the legends, the tales and what had experience here.”

Within that scope the historical and cultural works within boundaries of Osmangazi which forms the city center of Bursa are protected and restored with “Bursa History and culture Road Main Way” project designed by Osmangazi municipality and thus strived to make them survive. Our vision is to keep the past and the future alive and give the identity which has begun to perish back to Bursa and to inhabitants of Bursa today and tomorrow.

External links

* [http://www.osmangazi.bel.tr Osmangazi Municipality]
* [http://www.osmangaziab.org Osmangazi Municipality the EU Coordination Center]