Guide
The Aynalı Çarşı, also called the Hallio market, is a covered market in Çanakkale. It was built in 1890 by Eliyau Hallio, one of the leading figures of the Jewish community of the city.
Two inscriptions stand above the doorway, one in Ottoman Turkish and one in Ladino written in Hebrew letters. The Ottoman inscription records that the market was built by Elya Halyo, one of the sultan's loyal Jewish subjects, under the favour and protection of Abdülhamid II. The Ladino inscription records that it was built by Eliyau Hallio in the month of Tishri of the year 5650 of the Jewish calendar, on the occasion of the fourteenth year of Abdülhamid II's reign.
The market's proper name is Passage Hallio, but it became known as Aynalı Çarşı, the mirrored market, from the mirrors on either side of its entrance. It is named in the well-known folk song of Çanakkale.
The market was shelled during the Gallipoli campaign and reduced to ruin by the fires that followed. After the armistice of Mudros the English, who occupied Çanakkale between 1918 and 1921, used it as a stable for their horses.
After 1921 it stood for a time in ruins and out of use, apart from its entrance gate. Shops were later built on the ground, which appears in the land registry as the site of a covered market. During the attacks on and looting of Jewish property in 1934 the inscription over the door was plastered over. The market took its present form in 1967, while Sadi Fenercigil was mayor. The building belongs to the municipality of Çanakkale.
