Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a number of ancient architectural fragments were unearthed, and two
of these are now arrayed in the forecourt, including a sixth-century
capital similar to those in Haghia Sophia. It is possible that these
belonged to a Byzantine monastery that stood on this site.
There is a Greek monastery dedicated to the Transfiguration of
Christ on the peak of one of the island's three hills, Manastir Tepesi.
This was built in the Ottoman period on the site of a Byzantine
monastery of the same name. Three Byzantine emperors spent their
last days in exile in this monastery after they were deposed: Michael
I Rhangabe (r. 811-13), Romanus I Lecapenus (r. 919-44) and
Romanus IV Diogenes (r. 1067-71).
The second large island is called Burgaz by the Turks (from the Greek
pyrgos =
tower), on account of an ancient watchtower on its summit
that is mentioned by travellers as late as the beginning of the eighteenth
century. The Byzantines called it Panormos or later - and still today -
Antigone. It is about the same size as Kınalı but much more fertile and
well-wooded, and thus more pleasant to wander about on.
The village is quite pretty and there are a number of fine houses
of the late Ottoman and early Republican eras. The house at #15
Çayır Aralığı Sokağı was in the years 1934-54 the house of the
famous writer Sait Faik Abasıyanık, and it is now open as a museum
dedicated to his memory.
The most prominent monument in the village is the Greek
church of St. John the Baptist, built in 1899. The church is believed
to stand on the site of a Byzantine monastery of the same name.
This was the monastery where St. Methodius Confessor, Patriarch of
Constantinople (r. 842-6), was exiled by Michael II in the years 822-
9 because of his opposition to the emperor's policy of iconoclasm.
The crypt beneath the present church of St. John is dedicated to St.
Methodius, for this is where he is believed to have been imprisoned
during his exile on the island.
The Greek monastery of St. George Karyptis is on the northern
shore of the island, approached along Gönüllü Caddesi. Although
the monastery is believed to have been founded in the Byzantine era,
the earliest reference to it is in the second half of the seventeeenth
century. This was when the Greek innkeepers of Istanbul decided
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