Guide
The tomb of Ertuğrul Gazi stands in the Söğüt district of Bilecik. Ertuğrul Gazi was a Seljuk frontier lord and the father of Osman Gazi, who founded the Ottoman emirate.
The building dates from the end of the thirteenth century, though when exactly it was built is not known. Osman Gazi first had the grave made as an open one, and Mehmed I later turned it into a tomb. It was repaired so thoroughly in 1757, in the reign of Mustafa III, that it amounted to a rebuilding, and its original form was changed. Abdülhamid II had it repaired again in 1886 and added a fountain beside it, placing a second inscription over the door of the tomb in the name of his father Abdülmecid.
The tomb is six-sided in plan and covered by a dome, entered through a rectangular doorway with two windows on either side. Its walls are laid in one course of stone to two of brick. Rectangular windows open in the western and south-eastern walls of the chamber holding the coffin.
During the destruction in and around Söğüt under the Greek occupation in 1921, the tomb was blown up with dynamite by the Greek army, as the official documents of the time record. Mustafa Kemal Pasha, president of the Grand National Assembly, stated in his declaration to humanity of 12 April 1921 that the tomb of Ertuğrul Gazi at Söğüt had been blown up with dynamite, listing it among the outrages committed against the Turkish people.