Gemlik, Iznik and Bursa - Part 1 Saturday

We spent a long weekend near the Aegean coast, about a 4 1/2 drive from Ankara (Turkey is not that big of a country).  The trip was devoted visiting old friends, immersing ourselves in the regional history and working on behalf of the U.S. Embassy in Turkey.  A lot for three days!

Saturday we drove across the high plains of western Anatolia through Eskisehir to Gemlik.  We had our first encounter with the Turkish police as Randy uncharacteristically decided to speed on the good and uncrowded road we were driving along.  With a limit of 120 KM/Hour we were doing 143 and had to pay 125 TL for the mistake of doing so.  The police were very polite and knew a little English.  They took the cash and gave us a receipt and reminded us 120 is the limit!

At Gemlik we checked into our favorite hotel - the slightly worn but wonderfully situated Atamer.  It lies just above the sea (the Gulf of Gemlik) on a bluff just north of Gemlik.  Our room was spacious and had a balcony overlooking the sea.  The internet was good and they brought us a fan, so what more could we ask for?

Randy enjoys our balcony overlooking sea and olive trees

View from our room - the Sea of Gemlik (part of the Marmara Sea)

We met up with two old friends (who did not previously know each other).  The first is Hakan Konak, younger brother of my student Abdullah Konak (now a professor at Penn State).  We had visited Gemlik and the Konak family in 2008 and had a wonderful time.  As an added bonus, our good friend Yunus Alp (a former graduate student in civil engineering at Auburn University) had gotten a job at Gemlik this past year and moved there.  It is a small world indeed.  So the four of us took our car with Hakan driving to some destinations just west of Gemlik.  These were three seaside towns with ruined churches worth seeing according to my favorite Turkish guidebook (by John Ash).  In fact the entire weekend of sightseeing was courtesy of John Ash.  The drive was beautiful along the sea and we stopped at Mudanya (the big ferry port for Bursa with many fast ferries to Istanbul).  This town was quite busy on the beautiful spring Saturday afternoon and we viewed the town square (the museum and historic house where Ataturk signed the armistice with Greece in 1922 was closed for renovation) and had drinks on the sea at a cafe.  Then we headed to Kumkaya, a village on the sea just further west.  No tourists in this village and we located the ruined Greek church with ease.  Hakan found the guy with the key who let us in.  The church was partly modern (for Turkey) from the 1800's but the main part was from the 900's and really interesting.  John Ash calls it a place of "haunting melancholy."

An old Greek monastery along the road from Gemlik to Mudanya - right on the sea

Another view of this forgotten relic

Yunus, Alice and Hakan in Mudanya

Memorial (foreground) and museum (background) to the 1922 Armistice ending the Turkish/Greek wa

Alice enjoys an Efes while the men stick to tea at a seaside cafe in Mudanya

The ruined church of Kumkaya

As usual, the Byzantines reused (upscaled) parts from the classical ruins abundant in Turkey - this time a white piece of Roman or Greek marble

The key was located and the locked ruin opened for us

The Greek inscription over the doorway

Inside, the new part was without its roof

The old section (from the 900's) included columns probably recycled from the Romans

The dome in the older part - still intact and still impressive

The well preserved decorative molding in the old part of the interior

Hakan admires the dome

An angel still adorns the frescoes which John Ash puts at 18th century

Remnants of a Christian past

Our final historic destination for the day was Zeytinbag, the town further west on the same road.  This was somewhat touristic but wonderfully authentic and located right on the sea.  It was known (and is still known locally) as Trilye.  There are three churches there and an old school, all Greek, and all but one in various states of ruin.  We saw the exterior of the first church which is near the big ruined school.  It is partly used as a residence now.  We then went to the second church but could not find the key to it (John Ash had tried three times to get in this one without success).  However, we did find out from local people that the Greek Orthodoxy people in Istanbul were planning to renovate the church and reopen it and that it is still used occasionally.  The third church is now a mosque and it seems that it would be simple to go into.  Not true.  It was locked and efforts to find the key were difficult.  Hakan was relentless in his pursuit of the key as went to the local government (belediye) office.  This being Saturday only one person was working and he was done at the seaside area.  We drove there and found him amidst tourists.  He did not admit to having the key to either locked church (though Hakan suspected he had access to them but did not want to return to the office to get them).  He suggested we find the Imam.  Phone calls and brief drives around the city finally resulted in us finding out the Imam was in Bursa but the Imam from the new mosque in town had a key and would meet us.  This occurred and it turned out that all the effort was worth it.  It is a most unique church (John Ash calls it "perhaps the most perfect example of mid-period Byzantine architecture to have survived in Anatolia.")  We had the added bonus of the Imam taking us on a tour of the church/mosque and telling us the local history.  One item he told us was that the name of Trilye, as the local people believe, came from the original people building three churches in the town.

The ruined but still impressive Greek school of Zeytinbag/Trilye

The information on the school which includes a house for the headmaster across the street.  This house is in good condition and still in use

Yunus at the doorway of the first church

Our local guide (some guy from a shop that befriended us) with Hakan

The house that was a church and now a residence

Reused bits from Rome - a funeral dinner according to John Ash - on the first church which is near the school

The second church which will be restored by the Greek church authorities in Istanbul.  We could not get the key to go inside

A nice use of a recycled Roman/Greek column in the foundations of the second church

More classical columns are part of the foundation - this time used perpendicularly

The third church of Trilye

The side garden of the third church which is now a mosque and in full use

The entrance to the porch area which is supported by reused classical columns

Detail of one of the classical porch columns

The structure is now called the Fatih Mosque

Inside there are recycled ancient columns and architecture bits (see the two carved marble wall pieces to the sides of the columns)

Detail of a preserved tile floor in the church

Despite current use as a mosque the crosses remain carved over the windows

The church was founded in the 800's and turned into a mosque in the 1600's

Detail of exterior dome with brick work of sun and wheat leaves

The Imam said the local people believe that the sun and wheat leaves were to indicate good fortune and were, of course, part of the original church

The town center was also home to a wine shop selling the local winery's wine.  I could not resist this, of course, and bought five bottles.  These are yet untasted (the shop used to be able to provide tastes but the current religiously oriented government of Turkey put an end to that).  We headed back to Gemlik for dinner at Casa Konak.  Abdullah's mother, Leyla, is an excellent cook who makes everything from scratch.  She served us a multi-course feast and the entire Konak family was present.  It was a great way to cap off a super day and the final touch was when Randy and I had a glass of wine on our balcony at the Atamer Hotel overlooking the lights of the ships in the Bay of Gemlik.

The wine shop of Trilye

Bakus (cute!) butik winery of Trilye - they make a white and several reds

A building in the center of Trilye which has seen better days but is still in full use

Entrance to Casa Konak in Gemlik

They live on the top floor which is a good climb up

Hakan and his father Halit Konak

Hakan, Alice and Halit Bey

The newest Konak - toddler Eren from Abdullah's sister Sheyna

Leyla Hanim and part of her feast - she had completed the Haj in Mecca last year and was wearing the white scarf representing this (or so I understood)

The hot courses at Casa Konak