Abandoned Castles, Half-Made Dreams

From Archived Dreams on Instagram:

Burj Al Babas, designed by the Sarot Group in Mudurnu, Turkey (2014)

In 2014 a Turkish developer started building a private neighborhood of 732 small castles in the green hills near Mudurnu, halfway between Istanbul and Ankara. Every house was almost the same, with round towers, pointed roofs, and little balconies. The towers were inspired by Istanbul landmarks like the Galata Tower and the Maiden's Tower, mixed with European and American styles. The castles were made for rich buyers from the Gulf, priced around $370,000 to $500,000, with plans for shops, a cinema, and Turkish baths using the local hot springs. Then the Turkish economy fell apart, the lira dropped, and the company went bankrupt in 2018, leaving about 587 castles half finished.

The people of Mudurnu were against it from the start. Their village is full of old Ottoman wooden houses, so rows of copy and paste castles felt fake and out of place. Today the site looks like a fairy tale that stopped in the middle of the story. The outsides look ready, but inside there is only raw concrete, open walls, and silence. It is a strong reminder that a place needs more than a pretty shape to feel like home, it needs people and a real reason to exist.