BURSA
Area: 11.043 km²
Population: 1.603.137 (1990)
Traffic Code: 16
Bursa is located in the northwest of the
Anatolian peninsula and southeast of the
Marmara Sea. The shores of the Marmara Sea are
135 km away. The most important peak in the
province is Uludağ, which is a ski resort and
national park. The most significant lakes are
Lake Iznik and Lake Uluabat.
Districts: Nilüfer, Yıldırım, Osman Gazi,
Büyük Orhan, Gemlik, Gürsu, Harmancık, İnegöl,
İznik, Karacabey, Kales, Kestel, Mudanya,
Mustafa Kemal Paşa, Orhaneli, Orhangazi and
Yenişehir are the district of Bursa province.
Ottoman Capital Bursa
Capital Cities of Ottoman
The First Capital of Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman province of Hüdavendigar
When the Seljuks commenced their conquest of
Anatolia from 1071 onwards, they began
settling their new lands with Turkish tribes
from further east. When the Seljuk Empire
weakened and began to fall apart in the
thirteenth century, numerous small Turkish
principalities sprang up, one of which was the
Ottoman Beylik in northwest Anatolia. The
Ottomans expanded rapidly as they conquered
additional lands from the Byzantines.
Founder of the Ottoman Beylik was Osman Bey,
who was born in the town of Söğüt in Bithynia
in 1258. In 1299 he conquered Bilecik,
Yenikent, İnegöl and İznik, and this is the
year regarded as the founding of the Ottoman
Empire, which was to survive for over six
hundred years. As Osman Gazi gained in
strength, the Byzantine governor of Bursa
Atranos sought assistance from the governors
of Kestel and Kite. Their united army joined
battle against the Ottomans at Koyunhisar in
1301. The Ottomans were victorious.
Osman Bey resolved to take Bursa, and began
preparations to besiege the city in 1317.
First he had to cut off its link to the sea,
for which purpose he built a fort near Kaplıca
and appointed his nephew Ak Timur its
commander. His slave Balabancık was given
command of a second fort in the mountains
behind Bursa, so cutting off access to the
city on either side. The Turks then demolished
the fort of Atranos Beyce and made their
encampment at Pınarbaşı. Leaving the command
of the army to his son Orhan Bey, Osman Gazi
returned to Yenikent.
The siege lasted eight years, and meanwhile
Osman Gazi fell seriously ill and could no
longer fight. He ordered his son Orhan Gazi to
take Bursa, and Orhan began by taking Evrenos
Fortress. The governor of the fortress fled
into the mountains. Orhan Gazi sent Mihal Bey
to the governor of Bursa demanding his
surrender. The governor sent a gift of
precious clothes and forty thousand gold
sovereigns as a gesture of submission, and
after consulting his father Orhan Gazi allowed
the governor to leave the city with his family
and entourage. They made their way to Gemlik
on the coast and sailed for Istanbul. In 1326
the Turkish army entered Bursa.
This news reached Osman Gazi on his deathbed,
and he died happy in the knowledge that his
greatest goal had been achieved. The capture
of Bursa marked a turning point for the
Ottoman Empire. Orhan bin Osman, who had been
born in 1281, the year that his grandfather
Ertuğrul Gazi died, was now the second Ottoman
sultan. Orhan Gazi's elder brother one day
advised him to do three things. The first was
to strike coins in his name, the second was to
wear clothing which would distinguish him from
his subjects, and the third was to form an
army of infantry soldiers to be paid out of
the treasury. Previously coins had been struck
in the name of the Seljuk sultans, but in
1328, following his brother's advice, Orhan
Gazi became the first Ottoman sultan to mint
his own coins. He also introduced white
uniforms for his soldiers, in place of their
former red and black apparel.
In 1335 Bursa became the first Ottoman
capital. Orhan Gazi ruled for nearly 35 years
until his death in 1360. He was succeeded by
his son Murad, who had been born in 1326.
Sultan Murad Han bin Orhan bin Osman Gazi was
the third Ottoman sultan, and became known by
the cognomen Hüdavendigar.
In 1362 Murad captured the city of Edirne (Adrianople).
One night Murad Hüdavendigar dreamed that a
white bearded man with a radiant face told him
to build a palace in Edirne. A great palace
was immediately built and in 1363 the Ottoman
capital moved from Bursa to Edirne, although
Bursa retained its spiritual and economic
importance.
In 1399 Bayezid Yıldırım (the Thunderbolt)
founded a hospital in Bursa where the hot
mineral springs of the city featured largely
in the treatment of patients. When Timur's
armies captured Bursa in 1402, they destroyed
and burnt many of the medreses (colleges),
mosques and other monuments of the city. In
1429 further disaster struck, this time in the
form of plague which decimated the population.
In 1482, when Cem Sultan was fighting for the
throne against his brother Bayezid, he ruled
in Bursa for just eighteen days, but in this
brief time struck coins in his name. In the
battle against the army of his brother Bayezid
II, Cem's forces were defeated and he fled the
city.
BUILDINGS OF BURSA
Bursa style
The Ottoman architecture of Bursa has a
distinctive style with close parallels to that
of the Byzantines. With the conquest of the
Byzantine lands of the region many local
masons, carvers and other artisans continued
to work for the Ottomans. The Byzantine
influence which they brought to the new
buildings of the Ottoman principality
distinguished them from those of the other
Turkish principalities of Anatolia. Bursa
style lived on after the conquest of Edirne
and Istanbul in 1362 and 1453 respectively,
showing itself in the architecture of the
early monuments constructed in both these
cities. The T plan which developed in the
fourteenth century can be seen in almost all
the royal mosques of Bursa. The Bursa arch is
another distinctive feature. This broad
flattened arch does not have great carrying
strength, and is rather decorative than
functional in character.
Ulu Mosque
Bursa Ulu Mosque belongs to the early Islamic
style of mosque building, with a multidomed
roof supported by numerous piers and columns
and a covered court. This mosque was built by
the architect Ali Neccar for Yıldırım Bayezid
in 1399. It has two large minarets and twenty
domes of more or less equal size resting on
twelve square pillars, the central dome being
glazed. Inside are 192 inscriptions written by
celebrated calligraphers executed on the walls
and on panels.
Yeşil Mosque
The earliest example of Bursa style is the
Yeşil (Green) Mosque, which was built in 1419
by the architect Vezir Hacı İvaz Paşa for
Çelebi Sultan Mehmed. The tiles which lend
their name to the mosque are the work of
Mecnun Mehmed. The marble carving on the
façade, window frames, door, stone
inscriptions and ceiling above the door is
exquisite. The early mosques of Bursa and
İznik are characterised by plain lines
emphasising spatial form, and a controlled use
of decoration. Gradually the Ottoman
decorative arts acquired their own style, and
new masters emerged. The first Ottoman nakkaş
-a decorator who painted and stencilled
designs on plaster- was Ali bin İlyas Ali, who
did all the painted decoration for the Yeşil
Mosque.
Muradiye Mosque
Muradiye Mosque was constructed between 1426
and 1428 for Murad II and exhibits all the
typical characteristics of Bursa style,
including a reversed T plan. The domes and
both minarets of this mosque collapsed in the
earthquake of 1855 and were not rebuilt until
1902, when the mihrab (niche facing Mecca) and
minber (pulpit) were renovated with the rococo
decoration fashionable at the time.
Emir Sultan Mosque
Steps to the west side lead up to a gateway
between two columns over which is a marble
inscription consisting of a verse from the
Koran. This leads into a large courtyard
surrounded by a wooden colonnade, with a
şadıruan -fountain for ablutions- in the
centre. To the south stands the mosque, whose
mihrab is revetted in İznik tiles. North of
the mosque stands the tomb of Emir Sultan.
Around most of the rectangular window frames
are carved mukarnas (stalactite work), and
above these the pediments are decorated with
rumî scrollwork motifs.
Vernacular architecture
Traditional houses built in the style which
developed in Bursa over the centuries of
Ottoman nıle feature distinctive decoration.
Most have fireplaces, unlike the houses of
Istanbul. Above the main windows are smaller
windows placed high in the walls with stucco
tracery and coloured glazing. Walls, ceilings,
and the doors of the fitted cupboards are all
richly decorated. A considerable number of
traditional houses survive in Bursa today, and
although most date from the nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries they provide a
remarkable picture of the vernacular
architecture of the city.
PEOPLE OF THE CITY
Portraits
Bursa is one of Turkey's cities that has
experienced a high influx of migrants over the
centuries, and the communities of different
people have each added their own colour to
life in the city. In the sixteenth century a
wave of Turks arrived here from Central Asia,
for instance, doubling the city's population
between 1530 and 1575.
Around the city were villages populated by
Greeks who had been there since the middle
ages, and during the reign of Mehmed II
(1451-1481). Greek migrants from the Morea
were settled in Bursa.
Armenians from Kütahya first arrived here
during the reign of Orhan Bey in the
fourteenth century. When the Armenian
Patriarchate was founded in Istanbul by Mehmed
II in 1461 the Bursa metropolitan, Ovakim, was
elected patriarch. From the early nineteenth
century onwards Armenians from eastern Turkey
came to Bursa in large numbers, and most of
them settled in the neighbourhood of Setbaşı.
Bursa's first newspaper, the semi-official
Hüdavendigar published by the city governor
Hacı İzzet Paşa, introduced a section in
Armenian from issue 82 onwards. Although there
is said to have been a Jewish colony in Bursa
as early as 79 BC, Jews first attained a
significant presence in the city after it
became the Ottoman capital, when Sultan Orhan
gave permission for the Jews to build a
sinagogue and their own quarter. Trade,
money-lending, tailoring and goldsmithing were
the occupations in which most of the Jews were
engaged. When the Russians occupied Rumelia
(the Ottoman provinces of eastern Europe) and
Caucasia during the 1877-1878 Ottoman Russian
War, large numbers of Muslims from these
regions migrated to Bursa. Thirty thousand
people came from Ruse in Bulgaria alone. But
the majority of the newcomers were Georgians
and Tatars. Those from Caucasia settled in the
district of Yıldırım, those from Kazan in
Mollaarap, and those from the Crimea in
Alacahırka.
There had been Copts in Bursa since very early
times, and on the spring festival of
Hıdırellez they would go to the area around
the Lime Kilns in the foothills of Uludağ and
spend the day in celebrations, in the course
of which they also elected their chief, known
as the çeribaşı. They lived in the
neighbourhoods of Kanberler and Demirkapı.
At the beginning of the twentieth century
there were German, British, Austro-Hungarian,
Spanish, Italian, French, Belgian, Greek and
Iranian consulates in Bursa, and according to
the population census carried out at this time
9.84% of the population were Greeks, 6.66%
Armenian, 18% various others, and the
remaining 65.5% Muslim Turks. In 1903 the
provincial assembly's members included Müftü
Ali Rıza Efendi, the Greek metropolitan, the
Armenian Archbishop Natalyan Efendi, the
Armenian Catholic representative Arşoni Efendi,
Archbishop Artin Efendi, and Chief Rabbi Moşe
Hayim Efendi. Of the 19 qualified physicians
working in the city five were Turkish, and of
the 17 pharmacists four were Turkish.
The week of the hyacinth festival was one of
Bursa's colourful annual events. The people
would go out to picnic in the hyacinth meadows
which surrounded the city. Women and men went
separately, women on three days of the week
and men on the other four. One spring day in
1869 when the women of Bursa were singing and
amusing themselves in the hyacinth fields, two
men joined them. The scandal was investigated
by the judicial authorities and the two men
interrogated. They said in their defence that
they were strangers to the town and did not
know that it was forbidden for men to go into
the flower meadows that day. They were
acquitted, but the incident was recorded in
Bursa's court records.
Bursa has a rich culinary tradition that has
evolved over many centuries, but it is famous
most of all for its kebab. The German general
Helmut von Moltke, who visited Bursa in 1836,
wrote in his memoirs about the delicious
flavour and cheap price of this kebab: "We ate
lunch in typical Turkish style, in a kebab
house. After washing our hands we did not eat
around the table but seated upon it [this
"table" would have been a large cloth spread
on the floor]. I did not know where to put my
legs. Then a wooden tray arrived, on which was
the kebab, that is, small pieces of mutton
cooked on skewers and wrapped in bread. This
is a very delicious dish. After that came a
plate of excellent salted olives, helva, which
is a sweet dish much loved by the Turks, and a
bowl of sherbet (raisins stewed in water with
a lump of ice tossed in). For two hungry
diners this meal cost altogether 120 para, or
five shillings."
City of Exiles
By the nineteenth century Bursa, with its
beautiful old buildings and luxuriant
greenery, had long since left its days as a
capital city behind. Instead it had become a
city of exiles.
After long years of opposition to the Ottoman
government abroad, Mevlânazade Rıfat came back
to Istanbul and surrendered himself to the
police. The martial law court sentenced him to
exile in Bursa on the basis of a judgement
reached in his absence at an earlier date. His
exile was only repealed after Sultan
Abdülhamid II was deposed on 27 April 1909.
When Mehmed V Reşad succeeded him as the
thirty-fifth Ottoman sultan, the dissidents of
the previous regime were pardoned and
Mevlânazade Rıfat returned to Istanbul.
Mehmed Tevfik Bey, who was governor of Bursa
between 1906 and 1909, recalls some of the
exiles in his memoirs. His kindness to three
sisters of his acquaintance was one of the
main reasons for his friendship with Fehime
Sultan, one of the daughters of Sultan Murad V
(1876). Mehmed Tevfik Bey explains that when
the three sisters, one from the house- hold of
Sultan Abdülhamid, the other from the
household of Sultan Mehmed V, and their elder
sister were exiled to Bursa, he invited them
to stay at his house until they found a
permanent home of their own.
The story of how Gazi Osman Paşa's second son
Kemaleddin Bey was sent into exile is a tragic
one. Kemaleddin Bey was married to Naime
Sultan, one of the daughters of Abdülhamid II.
Naime Sultan fell ill at one point, and Dr.
Hakkı Şinasi Paşa administered an injection of
cacodilate. This gave rise to a rumour that
Kemaleddin Bey was in love with Sultan Murad's
eldest daughter Hatice Sultan, who lived in
the palace next door, and had instructed the
doctor to inject his wife with poison in order
to marry Hatice. When this humour reached the
ears of Abdülhamid II, he could not be
persuaded that the injection was indeed for
medical reasons, and arranged a divorce for
his daughter. Kemaleddin Bey was exiled to
Bursa and Dr. Hakkı Şinasi Paşa elsewhere.
Kemaleddin Bey rented a house in Bursa, where
he was kept under house arrest, guarded by one
of the imperial aides Major-General Mustafa
Paşa and several other officers from the
sultan's riflemen. The illustrious prisoner
was allowed no visitors, even the governor
being unable to call with- out first obtaining
the sultan's permission.
After the death of Sultan Murad V in 1904, one
of his favourites together with a large number
of women from her household were allocated
pensions of 10 lira each and exiled to Bursa.
It was commanded that a house be purchased for
each, and that they be married off to those
who applied for their hands. Since purchasing
so many houses and settling each woman down
would be a long process, two mansions were
rented where they all lived together in the
mean time.
Necmeddin Molla's elder brother Ali Ata was
crossing the Bosphorus on a steam ferry one
day where he lit his cigarette from that which
the stranger seated beside him was smoking.
The stranger turned out to be from the
household of heir apparent Reşad Efendi, and
when this political gaff was reported to
Sultan Abdülhamid II, Ali Ata joined the ranks
of exiles in Bursa.
Fehim Paşa was another celebrated exile to
Bursa at this time, and there were many others
in and around the city. Bursa's provincial
clerk and director of education were both
exiles.
COMMERClAL LIFE
Bazaars
The külliye-mosque complex- built by Orhan
Gazi after the conquest of Bursa included the
city's first bedesten or exchange building,
Emir Han, where textile merchants stored and
sold their wares. When the bedesten moved to a
new building constructed by Sultan Yıldırım
Bayezid (1389-1402), the other tradesmen moved
into the old bedesten and other bazaars (çarşı
or Pazar)grew up in the area around it. Hacı
İvaz Paşa Çarşısı housed the felt makers,
Sipahi Çarşısı the quilt makers, Gelincik
Çarşısı the cotton carders and tailors,
Atpazarı the horse and livestock traders,
Kapan Çarşısı the fruit traders, and Tahıl
Pazarı the dried fruit and nut traders. The
famous Bursa cutlers had their workshops
around the Tahıl Pazarı.
In addition to these there was Uzunçarşı,
Bitpazarı (the flea market), Tahtakale,
Tavukpazarı (poultry market), Bakırcılar
Çarşısı (coppersmiths market), Pirinç Han
(rice market), Tuz Han (salt market), İpek Han
(silk market), and Koza Han (cocoon market).
As these indicate, trade and manufacturizing
were vigorous and varied in Bursa.
Tradesmen
Bursa's tradesmen and artisans belonged to
guilds which exerted strict control over
trading practices. Only those trained in a
trade and qualified as masters were permitted
to open their own shops, and the copying of
items made by master craftsmen was prohibited.
After completing a long period of
apprenticeship, followed by years as a
journeyman, the artisan was finally qualified
as a master. The completion of each phase was
marked by a ceremony. When an apprentice was
judged ready to become a journeyman, his
master would inform the steward and other
officials of his own guild. All the members of
the guild would then be invited to a feast at
one of the excursion places outside the town,
where they would be entertained by wrestling
matches and other amusements. Then, to the
recital of prayers, the guild official known
as the yiğitbaşı would ceremonially gird the
apprentice in the peştemal (cloth wrap or
apron) which marked his new status as
journeyman.
Making the next step up to master craftsman
did not only depend on long years of work and
acquiring outstanding skill. Since a specific
number of master craftsmen were permitted for
each trade, the journeyman had to wait until
one of the masters died or retired. Then the
most senior journeyman of the guild would be
ceremoniously granted the rank of master.
The first silk mill was opened in Bursa by
Konstanz Bey in 1833, and a second by Boduryan
Efendi in 1843. Gradually the traditional
small craftsmen made way for industrial scale
manufacturing.
Sericulture
Bursa's economic wealth rested to a
considerable extent on agriculture - vine
growing, fruit growing, dairy products, and on
the olive production of Gemlik and Mudanya.
The large quantity of mulberry trees also made
Bursa an ideal centre for silk production.
Producing the raw silk for the textile mills
was a labour intensive process. Beginning with
the production of the eggs, through to
hatching the worms and the cocoon stage, all
involved considerable risks. One of the worst
disasters was pebrine, a disease affecting
silkworms which broke out in France and spread
to Bursa in the 1860s. As a result output
plunged, and many producers went out of
business and began to uproot the mulberry
orchards. Then the news arrived that a cure
for the disease had been discovered in France,
and unaffected eggs were imported. Production
went smoothly only for a while, before the
disease broke out again.
As the need for technical knowledge in the
silk production sector became evident, it was
decided to open a school for this purpose.
Known as the Silk School (Harir Dariılttalimi)
it opened on 2 April 1888 in a house rented
from Kazaz Ahmet Muhtar Efendi in the
neighbourhood of Şehreküstü in Bursa. The
first students graduated in 1889. Soon
afterwards the school moved to a larger
building in Setbaşı, a house belonging to
Burdurizade Osman Efendi. In 1894, when it
moved into a building constructed near Maksem,
the school was renamed the Institute of
Sericulture. Torkumyan Efendi was appointed
principal of the institute, and as well as
training large numbers of silk technicians he
introduced the Pasteur technique of egg
production which gave a valuable boost to
Bursa's silk industry.
Silk weaving
Bursa was the main textile manufacturing
centre of the Ottoman Empire. In the early
1850s Bursa had fourteen textile mills
equipped with steam driven machinery like
their counterparts in Europe, and there were a
further two in Mudanya. In Bursa there were
around 150 to 200 looms weaving tulle, and
pure and mixed silk fabrics.
The traditional looms used in Bursa were
extremely simple, consisting of a rectangular
wooden frame on which the weft threads were
stretched, and two cylinders for rolling up
the fabric as it came off the loom. Lead
weights kept the threads balanced and in
tension as the alternate threads were pulled
forward by a foot pedal for the shuttle to
cross between them. Apart from the weights
every part of the looms was made of wood.
Bursa fabrics were celebrated far beyond the
borders of the Ottoman Empire. They were
exported as far a field as China, and filled
the markets of Hungary, Poland, Italy and the
Balkan countries. In the sixteenth century
rich fabrics woven in Bursa from silk, wool
and silver and gold thread were used for
clothing worn by the Ottoman sultans and
princes. Bursa fabrics included velvets, the
velvet brocade known as çatma-which was also
woven in Bilecik and Üsküdar, diba- a brocade
incorporating gold thread, and a fine taffeta
known as canfes.
The weavers of Bursa had their own guild which
inspected the bales of cloth before they could
be sold, and stamped those which were up to
standard. Those which did not pass inspection
were confiscated. Each weaving shop
specialised in one particular fabric type.
Cotton yarn imported from abroad was subjected
to similar close inspection before being put
up for sale each Saturday in the market held
in the courtyard of Ulu Mosque. Silk cocoons
were sold at Koza Han.
When foreign competition began in the
eighteenth century the Bursa weavers were
forced to produce fabrics more cheaply, and
their quality gradually declined.
SCHOOLS
The Missionary School In October 1834 American
Protestant missionaries began establishing
schools in Turkey. They first opened a
secondary school for boys in Pera in Istanbul,
followed over the next five years by schools
in İzmir, Bursa and Trabzon. Their curricula
followed those of American schools, and they
quickly won popularity. The American Girls
School in Bursa had seventy pupils in four
grades. In 1893 the lessons taught were Greek
or Armenian and English, arithmetic and
geography being taught in Greek or Armenian,
and geometry, botany, physics, astronomy and
history in English.
Işıklar Military High School
This school was established in 1845 on the
orders of Sultan Abdülmecid on the site which
is today Heykel Meydanı square. It
subsequently moved to a new building whose
lower floor was of stone and upper floor of
wood in the district of Işıklar. The new
building was inaugurated by city governor
Münir Paşa on 10 June 1892. A second building
was added in 1894, and the number of pupils
increased to five hundred. In 1911 a school
hospital was added. During the Greek
occupation following World War I the building
was used as stables by the Greek forces. The
school reopened on 11 December 1922. Işıklar
Hill from which the district took its name,
was originally known as Âşıklar or Lovers
Hill, which in time was compted to Işıklar or
Lights Hill.
Hamidiye Technical School
This technical school first opened on 10 April
1869 in a mansion called Türkmenoğlu Konağı in
the neighbourhood of Filibos. Two years later
it moved to a new building in Tophane. At
first the pupils were oıily taught weaving,
and they made fabric for gendarme uniforms.
Subsequently shoemaking was added to the
curriculum, and tools and teachers were sent
from Istanbul. In the early twentieth century
French and music lessons were added and a
school band formed. In 1906 a shop was opened
on Hükümet Caddesi to sell the shoes and
fabrics made by the pupils. The school became
the pride of the city, and local people raised
funds for improvements. A lottery was held,
and a livestock sale at Atıcılar was organised,
at which a percentage of each purchase was
donated to the school. Again in 1906 Necip
Efendi of Bursa and Mirat Efendi of Istanbul
obtained a licence to sell European made
cigarette papers under the name Hamidiye
Technical School Cigarette Paper, on which the
profits also went to the school.
Mülkiye İdadi School
In 1885 a boys' secondary school known as
Mülkiye İdadisi was founded, and in July 1888
its fırst five graduates matriculated. Three
more grades were added to the original four in
1891, and between 1901 and 1904 a chemistry
laboratory, dormitory, refectory, and
recreation room were added. In 1909 it became
known as the Mektebi Sultani.
Agricultural College
This agricultural college was opened in March
1891 by city governor Mahmut Celaleddin Paşa
to give boys practical training in
agricultural technology. Known as Hüdavendigar
Model Farm Agricultural College; it was built
on land belonging to Topal Mehmed Ağa in the
village of Hamitler. It accepted twenty pupils
the first year, and for many years around
fifteen boys graduated annually.
In 1904 Mülkiye İdadisi had 325 pupils,
Hamidiye Technical School 150 and the
Agricultural College 78. In 1905 a teacher
training school known as the Hamidiye
Medresesi Muallimini opened, and this was
later renamed Darülmuallimin.
SPAS
From Rome to the Byzantines A letter written
by Plinius, the first Roman governor of Bursa
appointed by the Emperor Trajan early in the
second century AD, tells us that there were no
baths in Bursa prior to that time. During the
reign of the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I
(527-565)when a major building programme was
carried out in Bursa, baths were built at
Pythia (today Çekirge) so that the public
could take advantage of the hot springs there.
More baths were added over the centuries and
Bursa became one of the most important spas of
the Byzantine period.
Spas under the Ottomans
The seventeenth century Turkish writer and
traveller Evliya Çelebi declared, justly, that
Bursa consisted of water. The two-domed baths
at the spa built by Justinian were enlarged by
Sultan Murad Hüdavendigar (1360-1389) who had
another two domed section added. Over the
centuries people came from far and wide to
bathe in the hot mineral water here. They
included members of the imperial family and
household, notables and diplomats from
Istanbul, foreign princes travelling in the
region, and foreign scholars, writers and
statesmen. Over the four years that Mehmet
Tevfik Bey was governor of Bursa, for
instance, he was host to the Duke of Holstein,
brother-in-law of Wilhelm II of Germany, and
his wife on 6 May 1906, to Prince Victor
Napoleon of the Bonaparte family on 7 June
1908, and to Duke Carl Edward Saxe-Coburg and
his wife on 4 July 1908.
Bursa hamams consist of an entrance hall, a
tepidarium, and the washing hall itself known
as the halvet. The Ottoman poet Arif wrote of
these baths,
Those who enter remain
Bathing in the life giving water
Cures the ills of many
At Bursa's spa.
In a letter to his father written during his
sojourn in Turkey in the 1830s, Helmut von
Moltke wrote: "I have already told you of the
pleasures of the Turkish hamams. In Bursa the
water is not artificially heated, but is by
nature so hot that at first one cannot believe
that one will live to survive immeı~sion in
the large, clear pool without being scalded.
There was a wonderful view from the terrace of
the hamam which we entered and it was so
comfortable that we were reluctant to leave."
TRANSPORT
The Marmara coast
In the nineteenth century Bursa was capital of
the province of Hüdavendigar, which consisted
of the districts of Balıkesir, Karahisar-ı
Sahip and Kütahya, and the sub-provinces of
Gemlik, Pazarköy, Mudanya, Yalova, Karamürsel,
Tirilye, Bilecik, Lefke, Gölpazan, Söğüd,
Mihaliç, Kirmasti, İnegöl, Yarhisar, Yenikent,
İznik and Pazarcık.
The province had three main ports on the
Marmara coast: Gemlik, Yalova and Mudanya.
Gemlik stood at the end of the gulf between
the mainland and Bozbunın headland, which was
the tail-end of the Samanlı Mountains. This
port had been famous for its shipyards for
centuries. Gemlik Harbour was sheltered from
the northwesterly wind and so provided shelter
to ships caught in storms. The port of Yalova
further to the noıth had the disadvantage of
poor road connections. The busiest port of the
three, with convenient access to Bursa Plain,
was Mudanya, with a hinterland filled with
mulberry woods, olive groves and vineyards.
According to Evliya Çelebi Mudanya was named
after the daughter of Constantine the Great.
In the 1850s the journey by sea from Istanbul
to Mudanya took eight hours in calm weather.
When the northwest wind was blowing a gale,
high waves off Bozburun forced small ships to
shelter in the mouth of the gulf until
morning, so they did not arrive at Mudanya
until the following day.
Roads
Travellers arriving at Mudanya by ship took
horses for the last part of the journey to
Bursa. Their way passed through orchards and
vineyards, and for a long time the delightful
view of the Marmara Sea was visible in the
distance. Then as the traveller began the
gradual descent from the hills the view of the
sea disappeared, to be replaced by the sight
of a city rising above a plain with many
cypress trees. The city climbing the steep
forested lower slopes of Mount Olympos had
more than one hundred white minarets and
domes. Nearing Bursa the traveller came to a
bridge over the Nilüfer river, which wound its
way between gigantic walnut trees with their
dark leaves, pale green planes, verdant
meadows and mulberry groves. Each step nearer
to the city brought fresh scenic delights.
The Railway
In the second half of the nineteenth century
the Ottoman government realised the crucial
importance of constructing a railway across
the country, and in 1871 an edict was
promulgated for a main line from Istanbul to
Baghdad. The Asian Ottoman Railway Company was
founded, and a German engineer named Wilhelm
von Pressel appointed its director. Pressel
planned to begin the line at Haydarpaşa at the
southern mouth of the Bosphorus. An
independent line between Bursa and its port
Mudanya was also envisaged, and the tracks for
this local line began from Mudanya and reached
Bursa in 1874. The tracks alone cost 185,000
Ottoman lira (4,200,000 French francs) and
there was no money left to complete the work.
Not until 17 years later, in 1892, was the
project completed and the line put into
operation by the Ottoman Railway Company owned
by Monsieur Nagelmakers who purchased
operating rights.
It took just two hours for the train from
Mudanya to reach Bursa's Acemler Station.
Since the railway was run by a foreign company
the timetable was designed according to
Western time, which led to confusiori (Turkish
time divided day and night into twelve equal
hours, which varied according to the length of
daylight). The railway company hung up a
notice on 5 September 1892 warning passengers
that the timetable was based on Western time,
but eventually gave into popular demand and
adjusted the timetable to Turkish time.
İznik
İznik, with its thousand of years cultural
heritage, occupied an important place in
history. Having been the capital of four
empires, it is one of the remarkable
settlement places.
History
There are traces of a civilisation dates back
to 2500 BC in Karadin, Çiçekli, Yüğücek and
Çakırca Mounds near İznik. The settlement
before the immigrations of Trak Tribes in the
7th century BC, took the name of Helikare. The
word of 'Khryseapolis' (Golden City) was
printed on the coins having been minted in the
city.
Having been renovated by Antigonos, General of
Macedonia Emperor Alexander the Great in 316
BC, the city took the name of Antigoneia.
After the death of Alexander the Great, the
city was handed over to General Lysimakhos who
won the battle against Antigonos and named the
city as Nicaea, which was also the name of his
wife. In 293 BC, it became a part of Bithynia
Kingdom. During this period, the city was
decorated with important architectural
structures. Nicaea, having been the capital
city of Bithynia Kingdom for a period, later
on continued its presence as an important
settlement area of the Romans.
Nicaea got acquainted with Christianity by the
efforts of Petrus, one of the disciples of
Bithynia. During the reign of Emperor
Constantine I, the prohibitions on
Christianity were removed. In the early summer
of 325 AD, Nicaea was the scene of an
important meeting of 1st Consul in Senatus
Palace. A text comprising of 20 articles,
known as Nicaea Laws, and Christianity Feast
Days were approved after this consul.
In 787 AD, 7th Consul gathered in Hagia Sophia
Church in İznik. The prohibitions on paintings
and statues were removed under the leadership
of Empress Irene.
İznik has also been the capital city of the
Seljuks and Byzantines through history.
After having been captured by the Ottoman Army
in 1331, İznik became a more active city and a
centre of art, culture and trade. Many famous
people lectured in Orhan Ghazi Madrasah during
this period. The first Mosque, Madrasa and
İmaret (Soup Kitchen) of Ottoman Period were
built in İznik.
İznik became an art centre during 14th and
15th centuries, and world wide famous tiles
and ceramics were produced here. Its city
texture, with its grid-planned city settlement
from Hellenistic Age and monumental structures
from the Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans, has
still been preserving in İznik.
Climate
İznik has a temperate climate with wet
winters. In summers, it is sufficiently rainy.
The Art of Tile Making
The development in the art of ceramic tiling
in İznik can be easily understood from tile
coverings on historical structures of which
construction dates are known. Having been
built between 1378 and 1391, İznik Green
Mosque with its oldest Ottoman tiles which
decorates its minaret continued the Seljuk
tradition in aspects of technique and decor,
but the colours and tints are richer than the
ones of the Seljuks. The diversity of green
and turquoise ceramic tiles of the Mosque
attracts attention.
According to the historical records, the
ceramic tiles used in the constructions of
İstanbul were produced in İznik. The centre of
the ceramics known as Milet, Damascus group
and Rhodes work is İznik. The great traveller
Evliya Çelebi, who visited İznik in 17th
century, has mentioned in his book that there
were more than 300 tile kilns in İznik. Flower
motifs such as tulip, hyacinth, pomegranate
and clove were used in İznik Tiles as well as
human, animal such as bird, rabbit, dog and
ship figures. The most used colours are blue,
turquoise, green and red.
Where to Visit
İznik Museum ( Nilüfer Hatun Soup Kitchen)
This structure is one the beautiful examples
of 14th century Ottoman Architecture. In 1338,
Ottoman Ruler Murat the first had it built as
an İmaret (soup kitchen) in memory of his
mother Nilüfer Hatun. This charity house
served meal to poor people every day. In
Ottoman Architecture, T-shaped plan was used
for the first time during the construction of
this house. After having been used as a
storehouse in the Republican Era, it was put
into operation as a museum in 1960.
Archaeological works of art from Roman,
Byzantine and Ottoman Periods are on display
in the Museum. The works, having been
unearthed in İznik Tile Kilns Excavation, draw
the attention of many people.
Tumulus, Rock Tombs and Monuments
Berber Rock
Berber Rock, a large room-shaped monumental
tomb having been carved in rock, is located at
the foot of a hill in the west of İznik. There
are graves on the ground of it. It dates back
to the 2nd century, and it is one of the
important examples of the Hellenistic Period
in İznik.
Beştaş
This monumental tomb, raising among vineyards
in the west of the district, is on the road of
ancient Rome. The tomb is also called as
Obelisk or Nişantaşı. It is understood from
the inscription in Greek that this tomb
belonged to C. Cassius in the 1st century. An
eagle or a statue of Nike, the Goddess of
Victory is thought to have been over the 6th
stone on the top of the tomb. It is clear from
the remains that there is a statue of
Philiscus in the other side of the tomb.
Hypoge
It is an underground tomb in Elbeyli Village.
It is understood that it was built in the 4th
or 5th century. The ceiling and walls are
covered with coloured frescoes, typical to the
early Christianity period. In the grave room,
there are 3 graves.
Dörttepeler Tumulus
It is in the graveyard within Elbeyli
Municipality. Two monumental tombs are found
in the Tumulus. The first tomb is near the
road. Rectangular grave room with a dromos
(narrow passageway to the grave room), has two
klines (stone seating) on both sides. The
other tomb is in a grave room made of marble,
and covered with rough stone and trees.
Senatus Palace (Byzantium Palace)
The palace was built in the 4th century, and
it is now covered with lake water. Floor
mosaics are under ground. The first Nicaea
Consul which was very important for the
Christian Community gathered here in 325.
City Walls
The pentagonal city walls surrounding İznik
are 4970 metre long. The construction of the
city walls started in Hellenistic Period. But
they took their final shape by the new
additions during the Roman and Byzantine
Periods. When looked from the junction point
of two streets, four main gates can be seen.
Two of the four main gates, namely Lefke and
Constantinople Gates, have survived to the
present day in good condition. Marble relief
frieze pieces were used in the construction of
these two gates. The masks brought from the
theatre can be seen in Constantinople Gate.
Theatre
İznik Ancient Theatre was built on a large
area between the lake shore and Yenişehir
Gate. Theatre was built by the efforts of
Bithynia Proconsul, Plinius between 111 and
112 during the reign of Empire Traianus. It
was turned into a mass grave in the 13th
century. In the following years,
archaeological excavations revealed that a
Church, Palace, Ottoman Ceramic Workshops and
Tile Kilns had been constructed within it.
Bocek Ayazma
Being one of the intact remains from the 6th
century, the structure is thought to have been
a part of Hyakinthos Monastery. This circular
structure, having been covered with a dome, is
next to the Koimesis Church.
The Church of Koimesis
Bishop Hyakinthos had it built in the 8th
century. It is supposed to have been a part of
Hyakinthos Monastery. It was fully demolished
by the earthquake in 1065, and later on it was
renovated by additions. The mosaics and icons
of the Church were renovated again in 1807.
The Church of Hagia Sophia
Being at the junction of two streets, the
Church is in the very centre of the city. It
is a work of Byzantine Period, and thought to
have been renovated probably after the
earthquake in 1807. It was renamed Orhan Ghazi
Mosque in 1331. Having been demolished by the
earthquake and fire, church was renewed to a
great extent by Architect Sinan in 16th
century. On the wall of a grave room, there is
a fresco of Christ. The 7th Consul in 787
gathered here. Therefore, it is an important
spot for faith tourism.
The Church of Hagios Tryphonos
It is located on the left side of the street
towards Constantinople Gate. The cross shaped
church has four columns. The wall technique
and the cross-shaped plan of the church
indicate that it was a Byzantine work having
been built between the 10th and 12nd
centuries.
The Church of Ayatrifon
Supposed to have been built by Teodoros
Laskaris in the name of Aya Trinos in 13th
century, the church is located on the right
side of the street leading to the Yenişehir
Gate. Its plan is similiar to the one used in
Kariye Mosque in İstanbul. It is understood
from the plan that it was covered with a huge
dome, and its floor is decorated with
