Tirilye is an undiscovered, Byzantine ghost town posing as a fishing village on the Marmara Sea coast, just 20 km south of Istanbul. Its handful of crumbling historical sites are testament to the town’s former importance as a center of Orthodox Christianity and a trading center where the Silk Road reached the Western World. With a population of just 2500, Tirilye is less than a kilometre across, meaning it can be explored in a few hours, and making it an excellent day trip from either Istanbul or Bursa. Expect above-standard seafood, accommodation, transport links, and sea views at below-standard prices.
HISTORY OF TIRILYE
The town was originally founded by the Ancient Greeks in the 5th century BC, and the name Tirilye is derived from the Greek word Trigleia, meaning ‘red mullet’. As Mediterranean trade grew under the Hellenic, then Roman, then Byzantine empires, fishing ports along the Marmara Sea took on a new significance as centres of maritime commerce. Tirilye was particularly well placed to service Bursa’s massive silk industry, the official final stop on the Silk Road. The wealth that Tirilye accumulated built it into thriving cosmopolitan city and an importnat centre of Greek Orthodox Christianity.
As the Byzantine Empire declined, the Seljuk Turks conquered Bursa and its surrounds in the 11th century. In opposition to the Seljuk takeover, rival Turkic tribes began to rally around the leadership of a local chief named Ertugrul, whose son Osman would found the Ottoman Empire in 1299. The villages around Tirilye are renowned for being the original settlements from which the Ottoman Empire sprang. Tirilye itself became part of the nascent Ottoman state in 1321, though most of the population reamined Greek and Christian.
After WW1, the Greek and Turkish republics agreed to exchange each others minorities in an overdue Ottoman divorce settlement. Tirilye’s 10,000-strong population was relocated to Rafina in Greece, while Tirilye’s current 2,500 residents are the descendents of ethnically Turkish exiles from Thessaloniki. Note that Tirilye is often officially (though never colloquially) referred to by its modern, Turkish name, Zeytinbagi, meaning ‘olive grove’.
SIGHTS OF TIRILYE
Tirilye has been designated a protected area by the Turkish government since 1980 because of its historical monuments and the rustic Greek homes that still make up most of Tirilye’s housing stock.
However, the main draw is the Fatih Camii. This iconic 8th century Byzantine church was originally dedicated to St Theodore, before being converted to a mosque under the Ottomans. The building is the oldest surviving Byzantine structure in the region and is a much-studied example of classic Byzantine church design.
The Church of St Basil (Agios Vasileos) is now better known as the Tirilye Cultural Center. Built in 1878 as a Greek boarding school, mess hall and church, the interior is still very much as its original patrons left it.
The huge, neo-classical Taş Mektep used to be the Zarifeion School, one of the most prestigious schools in the region. One of its students was former Greek Cypriot leader, Makarios III. In 1924 it became an orphanage for the children of Turkish casualties of WW1 and the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923).
The dilapidated but ornate 19th century Yuannes Church (Hagios Ioannes Kilise) became a private residence after the exchange of populations, which explains its apparent lack of maintenance.
A couple of blocks away are the remains of the Kemerli Church (Panagia Pantobasilissa Hagios), which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The ruin of the church is closed to visitors, but it is set in a lush garden of fig and plum trees.
Of the many monasteries in Tirilye, the most significant is the Monastery of Hagios Sergios. Almost as old as the Fatih Camii, it is known for producing some of the main protagonists in what was to be remembered as the Byzantine Iconoclasm in the 9th century. It burned down and was abandoned in the late 1800s.
TRANSPORT TO/ FROM TIRILYE
12 km along the coast east of Tirilye is Mudanya, which is worth a visit itself and for which I have made a separate video. It is also where ferries to Istanbul run from. Two companies operate two terminals and run passenger ferries roughly every two hours until 9 pm between Mudanya and the Yenikapi terminal in Istanbul. Book tickets in advance and online here. From Mudanya take one of the regular busses that run to Tirilye every 15 minutes from Mustafa Kemal Pasa Caddesi.
From Bursa, regular busses run to Mudanya, sometimes continuing on to Tirilye, from various points on the city’s strangely large metro system. Take the metro to Sehrikustu, a minibus to Mudanya, then another bus to Tirilye, which should take about an hour in total. The nearest airport is Yenisehir in Bursa.
DAY TRIPS IN TIRILYE
If you are not visiting Tirilye from Bursa, the 4th-biggest city of Turkey and former capital of the Ottoman Empire is well worth a visit, even if just for a day. See the transport section and our very excellent Bursa video.
Since you will probably be arriving via Mudanya anyway, Tirilye’s more built-up twin former Greek fishing village is worth a visit and can be seen in a couple of hours. See the transport section and our equally excellent Mudanya video.
40 km to the south and set on the shores of the tranquil Lake Ulubat (Ulubat Gölü), Gölyazı is steeped in faded Classical Greek glory, and can be covered in a couple of hours, but must be approached via Bursa unless you have a car. See our Gölyazı video or more info.
EATING AND DRINKING IN TIRILYE
Fish is predictably the order of the day, and the string of restaurants along the waterfront offer up generous servings of seabass, calamari, mussels and the eponymous red mullet (‘barbun’ in Turkish). For a quick bite we can recommend Ece Cafe and Iskele Büfe. For a heartier sit-down experience, try Liman Restaurant. Perched at the top of a seaside cliff to the east of the town is the Swallow’s Nest Cafe (Tarihi Çamlı Kahve), which has sweeping sea views and a lush tea garden. It’s worth the climb, but don’t be fooled by an inferior establishment with the same name in the center of town.
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For ESL instructors, we’ve also shared comprehension, vocabulary, and discussions questions, as well as a fun crossword puzzle.
