A kiosk is an open summer-house or pavilion usually having its roof supported by pillars with screened or totally open walls. As a building type, it was first introduced by the
Sasanid and the next used as a small building attached to the main mosque from
Seljuks, which consisted of a domed hall with open arched sides. This architectural concept gradually evolved into a small yet grand residence used by
Ottoman sultans, the most famous examples of which are quite possibly the
Tiled Kiosk ("Çinili Köşk" in Turkish) and
Baghdad Kiosk ("Bağdat Köşkü" in Turkish). The former was built in 1473 by
Mehmed II ("the Conqueror") at the
Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, and consists of a two storey building topped with a dome and having open sides overlooking the gardens of the palace. The Baghdad Koshk was also built at the Topkapı Palace in 1638–39, by Sultan
Murad IV. The building is again domed, offering direct views onto the gardens and park of the Palace as well as the architecture of the city of Istanbul. Sultan
Ahmed III (1703–1730) also built a glass room of the Sofa Kiosk at the Topkapı Palace incorporating some Western elements, such as the gilded brazier designed by
Duplessis père, which was given to the Ottoman ambassador by King
Louis XV of France. in
Mexico The first English contact with Turkish Kiosk came through
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762), the wife of the English ambassador to Istanbul, who in a letter written on 1 April 1717 to Anne Thistlethwayte, mentions a "chiosk" describing it as "
raised by 9 or 10 steps and enclosed with gilded lattices". European monarchs adopted the building type.
Stanisław Leszczyński, king of Poland and father-in-law of Louis XV, built kiosks for himself based on his memories of his captivity in Turkey. These kiosks were used as garden pavilions serving coffee and beverages but later were converted into band stands and tourist information stands decorating most European gardens, parks and high streets. Conservatories were in the form of corridors connecting the Pavilion to the stables and consisting of a passage of flowers covered with glass and linked with orangery, a greenhouse, an aviary, a pheasantry and hothouses. The influence of Muslim and Islamo-Indian forms appears clearly in these buildings and particularly in the pheasantry where its higher part is an adaptation of the kiosks found on the roof of
Allahabad Palace, as illustrated by
Thomas Daniell. Today's conservatories incorporate many elements of
Islamic architecture, although modern art forms have shifted from the classical art forms that were used in earlier times. ==Small shops and cafés==