Kırşehir

Kesikköprü is one of the bridges built by the Seljuk Empire in Central Anatolia. It is on the way of Kırşehir-Konya, about 20 km (12.43 mi) to the south of Kırşehir, and across the River Kızılırmak with its 13 parts. Those who came from Izmir and tried to reach Sivas and Erzurum from Tokat passed over Kesikköprü. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the bridge took the name of Kesikköprü due to the fact that caravan roads were cut off by highwaymen.

There is an old Seljuk mosque built during the reign of either Mesud I or Kilij Arslan II. In the countryside is a ruined türbe (tomb) of a possible dervish during the times of either Seljuks or Ottomans.

The inscription on the bridge says it was built by Atabeg Izzu’d-Din Muhammed in 646 of the Hijrah/1248 of the Christian era during the rule of Keykavus, the son of Keyhüsrev. The inscription sunk in the river in 1953. The three-line inscription on the stone base can be read with difficulty:

Ressame bi-imaret hazihi el-kantara el-mubareke (fi eyyam khan) dawlet es-sultan el-azam, izzu-d dunya wa-d din, ebu'l feth Kaykaus bin Kaykhusraw Burhan emir el-mu’munin. El-mawla el-sahibu el-azam, atabek el-muazzam, nazım mesalih el-'alem, nasır el-enam, zubdet el-eyyam, Izz-eddin ebu'l meli Muhammed Zahir Ali Seljuk wa emir el-mu’minin a'azzellahu nasrahu wa a'la kadrehu fi shuhuri sene sitte wa arba'in wa sitte mia [646], hamiden li-Llah wa musallian 'ala nebiyyihi Muhammed wa aalihi wa sellem teslimen kethiran.

Aşık Pasha Mausoleum is the tomb of the 14-century Sufi poet Aşık Pasha who died in 1332.[8]

Kırşehir Castle is located on a hill mound, believed to have been built in the 4th century. It covers an area of 10 acres. It is thought to have been built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian. Nothing remains from the castle.[9][10]

Mocissus was also a Christian bishopric, and became a metropolitan see when, as Procopius (De ædif., V, iv) informs us, Justinian divided Cappadocia into three provinces and made this fortified site in north-western Cappadocia metropolis of Cappadocia Tertia, giving it the name of Justinianopolis.[7] Nothing else is known of its history, and its name should perhaps be written Mocessus. There is no doubt that the site of Mocissus, or Mocessus, is that which is occupied by the modern city of Kırşehir.[7] It figured in the Notitiæ episcopatuum until the 12th or 13th century.

Only a few of its bishops are known: the earliest, Peter, attended the Fifth Ecumenical Council (Second Council of Constantinople, 536); the last, whose name is not known, was a Catholic, and was consecrated after the mid-15th century Catholic Council of Florence by Patriarch Metrophanes II of Constantinople.[7]

The diocese was restored in 1895 as a titular archbishopric of the highest (Metropolitan) rank. It's vacant, having had the following incumbents:

• John Joseph Frederick Otto Zardetti (1895.05.25 – 1902.05.09)
• Giacomo Merizzi (1902.08.21 – 1916.03.22)
• Giovanni Battista Vinati (1916.07.31 – 1917.01.09)
• Adolf Fritzen (1919.07.31 – 1919.09.07)
• Lorenzo Schioppa (1920.08.20 – 1935.04.23)
• John Hugh MacDonald (1936.12.16 – 1938.03.05)
• Nicolas Cadi (1939.11.16 – 1941)
• Roger-Henri-Marie Beaussart (1943.12.10 – 1952.02.29)
• Vigilio Federico Dalla Zuanna, O.F.M. Cap. (1952.11.24 – 1956.03.04)
• Giovanni Jacono (1956.10.02 – 1957.05.26)
• Heinrich Wienken (1957.08.19 – 1961.01.21)
• Gabrijel Bukatko (1961.03.02 – 1964.03.24)