Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron of mariners, appropriate for an
island where in times past virtually all of the men were seafarers or
fishermen.
The house at #7 Refah Şehitler Caddesi is now a museum dedicated
to the memory of Ismet Inönü, the first prime minister of the Turkish
Republic and later president of Turkey. The house at #19 Demirtaş
Sokağı is a house museum honouring Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar, the
renowned journalist, essayist and novelist.
We come at last to the largest of the islands, Büyükada, the Greek
Prinkipo. This is the only one most people visit and is the summer
resort
par excellence.
Its rapidly expanding village has a large number
of attractive residences surrounded by well-kept gardens, several good
hotels and a very posh country-club, the Anadolu Club. Some of the
grandest of the mansions are along Çankaya Caddesi, including the
Fabiato Köşkü, built in 1878 and restored in 1997 by Çelik Gülersoy of
the Turkish Touring and Automobile as the Büyükada Cultural Centre,
with a café-restaurant. The Iliasko Yalı Köşkü at the foot of Hamlacı
Sokağı was during the years 1929-33 the home of Leon Trotsky when
he was living in exile on Büyükada, and it was here that he wrote his
autobiography and began his
History of the Russian Revolution
.
There are two Greek churches in the village. The church of the
Dormition of the Mother of God was first erected on its present site
in 1735 and was renovated in 1871. The church of St. Dimitrios was
built in 1856-60. When the foundations were being laid workers
found a relief monogram of the emperor Justin II (r. 565-78), who
built a palace and monastery on the island in 569. It is from Justin
that the island took its name Prinkipo, the Isle of the Prince.
Once you get out of the built-up area you find lovely pine groves
and other forests, wild clifs plunging down to the sea, and sandy
coves for bathing. But in summer the island is really too crowded; the
best time for a visit is early spring or late autumn, or on those magical
warm and sunny days that occur here from time to time in the depth
of winter: then the island is really perfect, for you have the amenities
of civilization without the people.
The island consists of two large hills separated in the middle by a
broad valley, so that the road around it makes a figure eight. You can
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