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反乌托邦式的迪斯尼乐园：土耳其城堡鬼城背后的故事
Dystopian Disneyland: The Story Behind Turkey’s Castle Ghost Town

由专筑网王沛儒，小R编译

我们中的大多数人可能都曾幻想过住在城堡里，无论是童年时的童话故事，还是成年后研究的欧洲君主制。如果有机会可以买一座属于自己的城堡，那会怎么样呢？2014 年年中，您只需花费 37 万美元就可以在土耳其实现这个梦想。每座 325 平方米的豪华城堡都配有蓝色塔楼和螺旋楼梯。唯一的问题是什么？这里有731 座相同的城堡。但是，当你有机会生活在迪士尼童话里时，谁还会在乎什么独一无二呢？

不难想象，2014 年在土耳其穆杜尔努镇推出的 Burj Al Babas 项目的销售宣传语听起来很像前面这一段内容。抛开商业吸引力不谈，销售是成功的。根据每个单元的位置，价格从 37 万美元到 53 万美元不等。项目推出后，一半的城堡很快售出，主要是来自卡塔尔、巴林、科威特和阿拉伯联合酋长国的客户，他们的目的是寻找避暑胜地。

这里有得天独厚的温泉资源，是土耳其最具历史意义和最美丽的本世纪初，这里吸引了包括萨罗特集团在内的全球房地产开发商和投资者的注意。萨罗特集团已在该地区建造了两家温泉酒店，并于 2014 年启动了其历史上最具野心的项目：迪拜塔。

这个开发项目被宣布为土耳其最大的超豪华度假胜地，设有清真寺、美容院、带有温泉水的土耳其浴场，以及一个购物中心，其建筑风格让人联想到美国国会大厦。所有这一切都被 732 座迪斯尼城堡式住宅所环绕，这是对古典建筑的一种复制，显得有些笨拙。这种不寻常的组合包括木质和大理石地板、石膏装饰的墙壁和天花板、室内和室外游泳池、喷泉、现代电梯、最先进的供暖系统和家庭自动化技术。在这里，一座城堡甚至不够出众，因此它被复制了 700 多次。

Most of us have probably imagined living in a castle at some point, whether during childhood, enchanted by fairy tales, or as adults studying European monarchies. Considering this fascination, what would you think if you had the chance to buy your castle? In mid-2014, you could make that dream a reality in Turkey for just $370,000. Each luxurious 325-square-meter castle came complete with blue turrets and spiral staircases. The only catch? Your castle would be one of 731 identical ones. But who cares about exclusivity when you have the chance to live in a Disney fairy tale?
It is easy to imagine that the sales pitch for the Burj Al Babas project, launched in 2014 in the Turkish town of Mudurnu, sounded much like these first two paragraphs. Regardless of the commercial appeal, the sales were a success. Prices ranged from $370,000 to $530,000 depending on the location of each unit. Half of the units sold quickly upon the project's launch, primarily to clients from Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates seeking summer homes.
Nestled in a pine-covered valley blessed with hot springs, this area in Turkey is one of the country's most historic and beautiful regions. In the early 2000s, it caught the attention of real estate developers and investors worldwide, including the Sarot Group. Having already built two hot spring hotels in the area, the Sarot Group launched the most.
The development was announced as one of Turkey's largest ultra-luxurious resorts, featuring mosques, beauty salons, Turkish baths with the region's thermal waters, and a shopping center with architecture reminiscent of the U.S. Capitol. All of this was surrounded by 732 Disney castle-like homes, a somewhat awkward reproduction of the historical archetype. This unusual mix included wooden and marble floors, walls and ceilings decorated with plaster, indoor and outdoor pools, fountains, modern elevators, state-of-the-art heating systems, and home automation technology. And, as if the strangeness of one unit was not enough, it was replicated over 700 times.


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当地政府和居民对这个项目奇特的美学设计提出了批评，担心这会破坏土耳其的文化精髓，对旅游业和这里的历史造成负面影响。此外，在建设之初，萨罗特集团还面临着非法砍伐树木为度假村让路的指控。从那时起，事情就开始变得扑朔迷离。

2018 年，随着全球房地产市场和经济的恶化，以及土耳其里拉的贬值，萨罗特集团发现自己背负着沉重的债务负担，宣布破产。他们放弃了 587 个在建城堡。在随后的几年里，萨罗特集团多次表示希望恢复这个项目，甚至提到出售另外 100 座城堡来帮助清偿债务，但并未实现。

The curious aesthetics of the development did not go unnoticed by local authorities and residents, who criticized the chosen design, fearing it would undermine the cultural essence of the area and negatively impact tourism and the region's history. Additionally, at the start of construction, the Sarot Group faced accusations of illegally cutting down trees to make way for the resort. From that point on, the story began to unravel.
In 2018, as the global real estate market and economy deteriorated, and the Turkish lira depreciated, Sarot Group found itself burdened with debt and declared bankruptcy. They abandoned 587 units that were under construction. In the subsequent years, the company repeatedly expressed hopes of resuming the project, even mentioning prospects of selling another 100 castles to help settle debts, but this never materialized.


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六年后，近 600 座废弃的城堡营造出一种超现实的景象，就好像想象中的公主故事发生在乌托邦式的未来一样。除了鬼城的氛围之外，这些迷你城堡还引发了人们对媚俗建筑的反思，模仿奢华和浪漫的理想模仿到失去意义。Burj Al Babas 的城堡在蓝色塔楼和椭圆形小窗中，将大众文化元素和对浮夸华丽的渴望奇异地交织在一起，体现了一种流行现实主义，它宣扬矫揉造作、强化刻板印象，并倾向于 "摹仿"，即对各种元素进行非语境化的模仿。这些城堡在销售上的成功也反映了当代消费者对进口美学的青睐，而非原汁原味的表达。

Six years later, the nearly 600 abandoned castles create a surreal scene, as if Disney had imagined a princess tale in a dystopian future. Beyond the ghost town ambiance, the mini-castles provoke reflections on kitsch architecture, parodying an ideal of luxury and romance until it loses meaning. Amidst blue-turreted towers and small ogival windows, Burj Al Babas' castles materialize a strange intersection of mass culture elements and a desire for ostentatious grandeur, embodying a pop realism that promotes artificiality, reinforces stereotypes, and leans towards pastiche—a decontextualized imitation of elements. The sales success of these castles also reflects a contemporary consumer profile favoring imported aesthetics over authentic expressions.


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所有这些思考都来得恰逢其时，因为这个项目的最新消息显示，这个项目已经被美国跨国公司NOVA 集团控股公司收购了，他们计划继续开发这个项目。现在，新公司将朝哪个方向发展还有待观察：是利用名气将这个建筑群打造成一个独特的旅游景点，还是选择通过建筑改造来弱化 "媚俗效应"？也许，是时候转变一下公主梦了。

All these reflections come at an opportune moment, as one of the latest updates on the project reveals its acquisition by NOVA Group Holdings, a multinational American company planning to continue its development. Now, it remains to be seen which direction the new company will take: whether it will capitalize on the fame and turn the complex into a unique tourist attraction, or opt for rehabilitation with architectural modifications to soften the "kitsch effect". Perhaps it is time for the princess's dream to transform.


© Esin Deniz/ Shutterstock


© Esin Deniz/ Shutterstock


© Esin Deniz/ Shutterstock