Guide
The Taşhan stands in Merzifon right beside the Kara Mustafa Paşa mosque and the bedesten. It carries no foundation inscription, so its date is not known exactly; its architectural features point to the seventeenth century.
The walls combine cut stone and brick. The han is rectangular, entered through a large round-arched door on the south front. It has two floors, with shops along the outside of the lower one, divided from one another as small bays under pointed arches.
Inside is an open courtyard. On its north side, arcades of pointed arches rest on stone columns, and behind them are rooms projecting like bays on large stone corbels, with stables for the animals beneath them. Rooms opening onto the courtyard also run along the east and west sides.
The second floor is arcaded as well. On the east and west the brick-arched arcades on stone columns are covered by cross vaults, and behind them are domed rooms each with a window and a door. On the north and south the arches of the arcades were filled with stone walling, and birdhouses were set into them. Two fountains built directly in front of the northern arcade add something to the courtyard. The han has been restored and now operates as a hotel.
