Al-Qishla's two-story building was b uilt by the Ottomans in 1861 to serve as an administrative centre and as the headquarters of their forces.
In 1868, the Ottoman military erected a 23 meter high tower in the barracks' gardens and placed a clock in it - gifted by Britain's King George V - to help soldiers wake up on time.
The monumental clock tower stands to this day, serving as al-Qishla's key landmark.
The site, which housed British officers during the British mandate period in the early 1920s, also hosted the coronation of King Faisal I, the first monarch of modern-day Iraq, and his successor King Ghazi.
After the establishment of the Iraqi republic in the 1950s, al-Qishla's significance gradually diminished over the decades, before suffering further neglect and destruction - like other heritage sites in Iraq - in the wake of the US-led invasion in 2003.
But in 2012, Baghdad's provincial council dedicated funds to restore parts of the site, in an attempt to revitalise it as a cultural space.
| Qashla_Clock.stl | 34.7MB |
