Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Unfortunately, the souvenirs of the past so poetically evoked by
Schlumberger must be supplied by the imagination - or by that
scholar's fascinating essay - for the islands preserve almost no relics of
antiquity: the convent cells bedewed with tears have vanished without
a trace or survive only in a crumbling wall, a half-buried cistern.
The beauties of nature, however, remain, though they are fast being
encroached upon by summer villas and camping sites, especially in
Prinkipo; but the smaller islands and the more outlying parts of that
one are still as lovely as Schlumberger describes them.
The little archipelago consists of nine islands, four of them of a
certain size, the rest tiny. Ferries stop in turn at the four principal isles,
the closest of which is Kınalı, known to the Greeks as Proti, followed
by Burgaz (Antigoni), Heybeliada (Halki) and finally Büyükada
(Prinkipo), the largest and most populous of the isles. During the
summer months there is a ferry from Büyükada to Sedef. There
are a few summer residents on Kaşıkadası (Pita), but Tavşanadası
(Neandros), Yassıada (Plati) and Sivriada (Oxia) are uninhabited.
Except for a few municipal vehicles, only faytons, or horse-drawn
carriages, are used on Büyükada, Heybeliada and Burgaz, while not
even those are allowed on Kınalı.
The nearest of the large islands is some 15 kilometres from the
city; it is appropriately called Proti (First) by the Greeks. Its Turkish
name is Kınalı, Dyed-with-Henna, because of the reddish colour of
its clifs along the shore. It is a rather barren island, but the village is
very pretty and next to it there is a pebble beach. The house at #23
Fazıl Ahmet Aykaç Caddesi was the home of the famous Armenian
composer Gomidas during the years 1909-13. The island has always
had an Armenian community, though here and on the other three
large islands the great majority of the year-round residents are Muslim
Turks, with small Greek communities on Burgaz, Heybeliada and
Büyükada, where there is also a Jewish community. In times past the
islands were predominately Greek. The Armenian church, dedicared to
St. Gregory the Illuminator, was founded in 1857; the present building
is the result of a complete reconstruction in 1998. The Greek church,
dedicated to the Birth of the All Holy Mother of God, was founded in
1886. When the foundations of the present church were being built
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