Guide
The Abdullah Pasha fountain stands in the Gülbahar Hatun quarter of Trabzon. It was built in 1844 by Hazinedarzade Abdullah Pasha, then governor of the city.
It first stood in front of the water distribution house on what is now Taksim Square in Trabzon. When the street was widened the distribution house was pulled down, and the fountain and its inscription were taken apart and thrown down somewhere near the Gülbahar Hatun Mosque. The pieces were later gathered up and the fountain was rebuilt where it stands today, at the eastern entrance to the Zağnos Pasha tower, on the initiative of the garrison commander of the day, Hüsnü Göktuğ Pasha.
The face of the fountain is clad in marble slabs. It measures 2.10 metres across and 3.02 metres to the eaves. On it are an inscription panel measuring 0.79 by 1.56 metres, eaves in several steps and an ornamented crest, and from the outside it puts one in mind of a monumental doorway.
The inscription is set out in four columns and nine lines, running to eighteen couplets. It is framed by a rectangle ornamented above with leaf motifs set side by side. On either side of the frieze above the eaves is a rosette, and the crest rests on that frieze: in the middle is the oval monogram of Abdülmecid, at the sides curling branches springing from rosettes, above a fan-shaped finial, and rosettes at the corners.
The verses say that the welfare of the people is a duty owed by rulers, and record that the fountain was built out of a third of the estate left by the pasha's late brother, in accordance with his will. They add that not a drop of this water fails to sweeten the mouths of the people of Trabzon, men and women alike, and that the good done here is not confined to people: every living creature and every kind of plant draws on this fountain.
