Princes' Islands Tourism Development Center

The focal point of the village, here as in the other three major isles, is the vapur iskelesi, or ferry landing, on the northeast shore. The new iskele for the sea bus is just beside the pier for the regular ferry on its south side.

Kınalıada is the only one of the four larger isles that does not have faytons (horse carriages), and so those who want to explore the uninhabited western side of the island must do so on foot or by bicycle. Local residents claim to prefer the absence of horses which renders the island more sweet-smelling than its sisters. In any case, the island is so small that any destination can be reached within a few minutes’ walk.

A final stop on Burgazada might be the Kalpazankaya restaurant, on a point on the southwest side of the island—this will require a fayton ride. Long a favorite with island residents and visitors, this traditional summer restaurant, set on a hillside among pine trees, features rustic wooden tables in the open air and simple fare. It is equally pleasant for a leisured lunch or a moonlight supper.

The site of the Byzantine monastery of the Theokoryphotos, the Transfiguration of Christ, is on the summit of Hristos (Christ) Tepesi, as suggested by the name of the hill. Greek tradition, unverified by the Byzantine sources, has it that the monastery was founded by the emperor Basil I the Macedonian (r. 867-86) on the ruins of an ancient Greek temple. There is evidence of a chrysobull of the emperor Manuel I Comnenos granting the Theokoryphotos its rights as a monastery in 1158. The earliest reference to the monastery after the conquest is c. 1547 by the French scholar Petrus Gyllius, who reported that it was virtually intact.

But by the end of the eighteenth century the monastery was an abandoned ruin.

All that remains is a nineteenth-century church and a two-storey building erected in the eighteenth century, along with the ruins and architectural fragments of earlier structures scattered about the former enclosure of the monastery. Inside the entrance to the enclosure there are a number of ancient architectural fragments that include four beautifully carved Byzantine capitals.

Within the monastery precinct are four large vaulted underground cisterns which still collect rainwater even today

The view from the hilltop is superb, with all of the other islands of the archipelago in view as well as the Asian shore of the mainland opposite. Greeks and others still come to the church to mark the panigiri of the Transfiguration on August 6, which in times past would have been celebrated with music and dancing on the hilltop.

The Greek cemetery is just above the site of the monastery. The little church in the cemetery is dedicated to Hagios Profitis Ilias, the Prophet Elijah, whose chapels are always on hilltops.

The Greek Orthodox monastery of Hagios Georgios (St. George) Karyptis is on the northern shore of the island, approached from Gönüllü Caddesi. The gateway leads to the grounds of the katholikon, from which a flight of steps leads down to the dormitory of the monastery, a two-storey stone building.

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 seventeenth century. This is when the Greek innkeepers of Istanbul decided to restore and maintain the monastery, which apparently had fallen into ruins.

The present church was built in 1897 on an endowment provided by Simeon Sinyosoğlu. It is built on the Greek-cross plan of medieval Byzantine architecture, probably repeating the design of the original katholikon. The church has a particularly fine iconostasis, carved out of wood and embossed with gold, and also an episcopal throne of finely-carved wood. On the reverse side of the icons are inscribed the words: "By thy servant Joachim, Monk from Crete, in the year of our Blessed Lord 1818." The iconostasis dates from the eighteenth century and is undoubtedly from the katholikon of the earlier monastery.

At #15 Çayır Aralığı Sokağı is the Spanudis Köşkü built by Dr. Spanudis. During the years 1934-54 this was the home of the famous writer Sait Faik Abasıyanık (1906-54) and is now a museum dedicated to his memory. It is well worth a visit, to see the mementos of the writer’s life and art, as well as to get a sense of life in a traditional island summer house. Sait Faik is also commemorated by a statue in Iskele Meydani. Many of his stories are about the ordinary people of Burgaz and their way of life, so it is very fitting that he is honored here.

The village mosque stands near the shore at the northern end of Gezenti Caddesi. It is a eight-sided domed structure designed by the architect Burhan Ongun and completed in 1954.

At the southern part of the village there is a Cemevi, a house of prayer used by the Alevi community.

A short way to the northeast of the church, on Takım Ağa Sokağı, there is a glassed-in structure housing an ayazma dedicated to St. John the Baptist. It is believed that this is part of the original structure of the Byzantine monastery attached to the church of St. John.

The Greek Orthodox church of Hagios Ioannis Prodromos, St. John the Baptist, is the most prominent monument in the village, its dome, raised on a high drum, dominating the view as seen from the ferry as one approaches the iskele. The church is a short way from the seafront on the first street to the south of the ferry landing.

The present church, built in 1899, is believed to stand on the site of the katholikon of the Byzantine monastery of St. John. The original katholikon was probably built in the eleventh century, and parts of its structure are thought to be incorporated in the present church, which seems to retain the plan of the earlier structure. The evidence for this conclusion is presented by George Mastoropoulos in his Patriarchal Monasteries of the Princes’ Islands.

On the left side of the narthex, or vestibule, a stairway leads down to a small subterranean crypt with a vaulted ceiling. The crypt is dedicated to St. Methodios, for this is believed to be the dungeon in which he was imprisoned by Michael II, and where he remained for seven years before being released by the emperor Theophilos. Grosvenor describes the ordeal that Methodius endured before going to his final rest:

At Antigone, Theodora erected the Church of St. John the Baptist over the cave where the Confessor had been so long confined. In the renovated modern wooden [actually stone and brick] church, still the chief sanctuary of the islanders, little remains of the early edifice. Nevertheless the apse, or eastern portion, is part of the original structure.

Motorboats can be hired near the iskeles to take the visitor to pebble beaches on the south and west shores of the island. The Adalar Su Sporları (water sports) club, with an Olympic-size swimming pool, is on Molozburnu, the promontory just to the south of the ferry landing.

The iskele for the sea bus is a short distance to the north of the regular ferry landing on the northeast coast of the island. There are several cafes and restaurants on the seafront around the ferry landings. Faytons wait for hire beside the park between the two piers.

Hüseyin Rahmi Gürpınar (1864-1944), the renowned journalist, essayist and novelist. This is now a museum containing many interesting mementos of the writer’s life, as well as period furniture, pictures and other objects.

At #5 Abbas Paşa Sokağı there remains only the crumbling wall that surrounded the palace; on this wall the visitor can see an Egyptian lotus motif incised in the pillars. The nearby houses at #7 and #9 Fettah Sokağı served as the selamlık, or men’s quarters, of Abbas Hilmi’s palace.

The Merit Halki Palas Hotel is on the hillside above the large bay that indents the northwestern shore of the island. The original hotel on this site was built in the years 1852-62, most of its clients being the parents of students at the Greek Commercial School. The hotel was destroyed by fire in 1991, but it was rebuilt in 1992 in its original elegant 19th century style, but with the addition of modern conveniences such as a swimming pool and gymnasium. The Halki Palas is ideally situated for those who would like to explore Heybeliada on foot, particularly along the pine-scented roads in the uninhabited southwestern end of the island.

The Heybeliada Water Sports Club (Su Sporları Klübü) is on Değırmen Burnu, the northwestern promontory of the island. The promontory takes its name from a windmill (in Turkish, değirmen), which appears as a landmark in all views of the island going back to Ottoman times.

Çam Limanı is a well-known summer destination for visitors wanting to swim and to picnic beside the sea under the pine trees. In earlier times there were cafes along the water, but today the bay has fallen on hard times and consists of a rough beach, some little snack and soft-drink stands, and a football field. Still, Istanbulites all know the song by Yesari Asim Arsoy (whose statue is mentioned above) that celebrates the pleasures of an earlier era’s moonlight evenings at Çam Limanı.

The Heybeliada Sanitarium is perched on a bluff above the sea on Yeşıl Burnu (Green Point), the promontory that forms the eastern arm of Çam Limanı. Founded in 1924 under the direction of Professor Dr. Sever Kamil, it was the first sanitarium in Istanbul, and presently closed

There is another small monastery on the peak of Baltacıoglu Tepesi at the southwestern end of the island. This also originated as a skete, founded in 1835 by a monk named Andonis Tsimas. The skete eventually developed into the monastery of the Metamorphosis of Christ the Saviour (Metamorphoseos tou Sotiros Christou), known in Turkish variously as Hristos Manastir (Christ Monastery) or Makarios Monastery, in memory of a monk of that name. All that remains today is a small chapel and an attached house, both embowered in a picturesque setting on the hilltop.

The monastery of Hagios Spyridon (called Terki Dunya in Turkish) is on the southwest coast of the island, perched on the promontory that forms the western horn of the huge crescent-shaped bay known as Çam Limanı (Pine Port). This little monastery began in 1868 as a skete, a simple monastic hut, dedicated to St. Spyridon by a young monk from Thrace known as Arsenios. Subsequently the metropolitan bishop of Cephalonia, Embariki Mazarakis, helped Arsenios build the katholikon and a small dormitory for the monks. The monastery was destroyed in the 1894 earthquake, but then rebuilt to twice its original size. When Father Arsenios died in 1905 he was buried in the garden of his monastery. The monastery was restored in 1954 by Patriarch Athenagoras. It has since been badly damaged by fire and is now falling into ruins.

A short distance beyond the monastery a road leads off half-right from the coast road to the Muslim Turkish and Orthodox Greek cemeteries. The oldest funerary monuments in the Turkish cemetery can be distinguished by the stone turbans that top the tombstones, for the turban was banned in 1826 in favor of the fez, which was in turn banned in 1925. Among the notables buried here are Hacı Ahmet Hulusi Paşa, one of the last Ottoman governors of Salonica, and Lütfi Müfit Özdes, a comrade-in-arms of Atatürk.

The Greek cemetery has a neo-classical chapel dedicated to St. Barbara (Hagia Barbara).

There is another tomb on the grounds just below the road that leads past the monastery. This is the 1868 mausoleum of the wife of the noted eccentric Spyridon Kanglaris; when he died, he was buried next to this monument. This octagonal brick structure with open ogive arches is screened by wrought iron gratings. On the hillside below it there is a marble wellhead commissioned in 1910 by the abbot Procopius Arapoğlu. Water is still drawn from the cistern beneath.

The monastery of St. George (Hagios Georgios tou Kremnou) is a pink complex on the shore south of the village, just beyond the Navy’s ordu evi (officers’ club). The appellation "tou Kremnou," or "on the cliff," stems from the fact that it is built on a bluff above the sea. The setting is quite beautiful, with pines, cypresses and other trees embowering the picturesque buildings of the monastery above the blue Marmara, a scene reminiscent of the Aegean isles of Greece.

The monastery is believed to have been founded in the years 1583-93. The Reverend John Covel visited the monastery in 1677. As he notes in his diary for 26 February of that year: "There is another monastery here, dedicated to St. George. It is decimated and under [the metopolitan of] Chalcedon. There are bookes there too, but I judging they were much of the same stuff, did not take the paines of seeing it." The English traveller Richard Pococke, who visited the island in 1739, remarked that Greeks from Istanbul took refuge in the monastery of St. George during times of plague.

The patriarch Ioannikos (r. 1761-3) retired to the monastery of St. George after his term of office in the Patriarchate. He had already built a new katholikon in the monastery, dedicating it in memory of his father, Georgios Karatzas, according to an inscription set into the wall. Ioannikos also founded a "school for mutual instruction" dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, making the monastery a metochion of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, as it remains today.

The katholikon was damaged by a fire in 1882, which destroyed the old wooden iconostasis and all of its icons, as well as the liturgical furniture. Most of the icons that one sees now in the church are modern Russian works. The only notable icon of earlier date is in the narthex. This is an icon of St. George painted in 1764 by an anonymous monk and dedicated to the patriarch Ioannikos, who is buried in the narthex.

The monastery of St. John the Baptist (Hagios Ioannis Prodromos) was in the center of the island, on the western slope of Değirmen Tepesi. The site is now within grounds belonging to the Turkish Naval High School, and can be visited only with special permission from the commandant.

The founding date of the original monastery is not known, but it was probably built in the medieval Byzantine period. The monastery was destroyed in 1672, and all that survived was a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Theotokos, the Mother of God, also known as the Kamariotissa, Our Lady of the Arches. The monastery and chapel were rebuilt the following year by Nikosios Paniotakis, who was the Grand Vizier’s dragoman, or chief interpreter. Thenceforth the establishment was known as the monastery of the Panagia Kamariotissa.

In 1828, during the Russo-Turkish War, the monastery was used to house Russian prisoners of war, some three hundred of whom died here. A memorial to them, a (now headless) statue of an angel holding the czars’ coat of arms, a double-headed eagle, can be seen in a small fenced area on the road just above (Aşıklar Yolu, or Lovers’ Lane, cutting across the middle of the island). The Greek Commercial School (Emporikis Scholis) was founded at the monastery in 1831, and in 1875 a new five-storey building was added, making it possible to accommodate some four hundred students, who came from all over the Greek world. The school closed during World War I, when its buildings were requisitioned by the Turkish government. After the war the school reverted to the Orthodox Patriarchate, which used it to house Greek orphans from Anatolia who were displaced in the population exchange of 1923. Then in 1942 the monastery was expropriated by the Turkish government to house part of the Naval Academy. The iconostasis and icons of the Kamariotissa were then transferred to the monastery of the Holy Trinity and the Patriarchate, while the church itself was abandoned and left desolate, as it remains today.

The katholikon of the monastery dates from a complete rebuilding in 1843. In plan it is the usual three-aisled basilica with a barrel-vaulted nave and flat ceilings over the side aisles, with the narthex on the west and the main semicircular apse protruding from the east end. The north aisle is named for the renowned icon displaced there—the Blessed Virgin of Consolation—surrounded by scenes from the Twelve Feasts of the Orthodox Church, an important Constantinopolitan work of the fourteenth century. The south aisle is dedicated to the Prophet Elijah, who is depicted in an icon along with fourteen scenes from his life, dated 1772. On the right side of the narthex there is a chapel dedicated to St. John the Evangelist and St. Germanos the Confessor, patriarch of Constantinople in the years 715-30.

The carved wooden iconostasis is richly decorated with floral, faunal, and heraldic motifs in perforated relief, as are the episcopal throne, the pulpit and the Oraia Pylai, or Beautiful Gates, in the center of the screen. Flanking the Oraia Pylai are icons of Christ Pantocrator, on the right, and the Virgin Hodigitria, on the left, the latter a work of the Cretan School dating from the sixteenth century. The icon of St. John the Baptist, with twelve scenes from his life, is probably also from the sixteenth century. Beneath it is the Hospitality of Abraham, which may date from the fifteenth century. Also on the iconostasis is a large icon depicting St. Photius, patron saint of the school, with an intricately worked silver covering done in Moscow in 1903. On the southern wall there is a large icon of the Virgin Hodigitria, possibly dating from the sixteenth century. Also noteworthy are the icon stands and candle stand in the narthex, all finely carved in wood with floral and heraldic motifs.

There are a number of tombs behind the church, including those of rectors and professors of the school as well as two patriarchs, Cyril VII (r. 1855-60) and Constantine V. (r. 1897-1901)

In Byzantine times, there were at least three monasteries on Heybeliada, then known as Halki. The most renowned of these was Hagia Triada, the Holy Trinity, whose site on Ümit Tepesi is occupied by the Greek Orthodox theological school of the same name, a direct descendant of the original Byzantine monastery. The present monastery is the most prominent monument on Heybeliada, dominating the view from an approaching ferry and from within the village itself.

The earliest reference to a monastery on Halki is in the writings of St. Theodore of Studius early in the ninth century. Theodore, abbot of Constantinople’s famous monastery of St. John of Studius, was exiled to a monastery on Halki by Leo V (r. 813-20) because of his criticism of the emperor’s iconoclastic policy. While on Halki, Theodore wrote a number of letters, theological treatises, and poems, one of which was addressed fondly to the monastic cell in which he was confined.

The monastery of the Holy Trinity was restored by the patriarch Photius I (r. 858-67, 877-86), who was twice exiled there, first between his two terms as patriarch and then in the years 887-90. Photius died in the monastery in 890 and was buried there; he was subsequently canonized and is today revered as the patron saint of the Theological School of the Holy Trinity.

The monastery was apparently destroyed at the time of the Turkish Conquest in 1453, moving one anonymous chronicler to lament the loss of what "had earlier been a place where wisdom and knowledge were studied, not only by monks but also by kings and noblemen." In 1550 the monastery was rebuilt or at least partially restored by the future patriarch Metrophanes III (r. 1565-72, 1579-80). Metrophanes also gave to the monastery some three hundred manuscripts, a priceless gift that formed the nucleus of what was to become one of the most renowned libraries in the Orthodox world after that of the Patriarchate in Istanbul.

Hagia Triada went through difficult times in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but its finances, at least, improved after Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia (r. 1682-1725), issued a chrysobull giving the monastery a long-term endowment. The monastery was rebuilt and refurbished in 1773 through the efforts of its energetic abbot, Samuel the Deaf. The monastery was badly damaged in 1821, at the beginning of the Greek War of Independence, when it was attacked by a mob and set on fire. The monastery was rebuilt in 1844 by Patriarch Germanos IV, who decreed in a synod that "a theological school should be built for a purpose pleasing to God and dwelt in by theology teachers, priests who wish to learn, and future priests." Wooden buildings were erected to house the classrooms, study hall, teachers’ quarters, student dormitories, refectory, infirmary, and patriarchal apartments, while a two-storey stone structure was built for the library. Then in 1891 a three-storey wing was added to house the administrative offices and new dormitories. All of these structures were seriously damaged in the great earthquake of 1894. Thus a completely new building had to be erected for the monastery, all of the funds for which were provided by the philanthropist Pavlos Skylitsis Stephanovik. The new monastery was designed by the architect Pericles Photiades, and the building was officially dedicated on 6 October 1896, the archimandrite Germanos Gregoras presiding as Rector of the Theological School.

Theological School

The main entrance to the theological school is a combination of neo-classical and neo-Byzantine styles. Two monoliths of Proconnesian marble crowned with intricately carved Corinthian-type capitals divide the front of the porch, with smaller columns of the same type supporting the stilted arches of the tripartite window above. Four columns identical to those in the porch support the ornately painted ceiling of the entrance hall, from which a pair of marble stairways lead to the great reception hall on the main floor above. The walls of the reception hall are hung with portraits of patriarchs, rectors of the theological school, and others associated with the history of the monastery. At one end of the hall a niche contains the carved wooden iconostasis and its icons from the Byzantine church of the Virgin Kamariotissa on Heybeliada, which was taken over by the Turkish Navy in 1942. The patriarchal apartments, the administrative offices, and the rooms of the faculty are also on the main floor.

The classrooms of the school are situated on either side of the transverse corridor on the first floor, and the dormitories of the seminarians are in the north and south wings. The renowned library is also on the first floor as are the refectory, the infirmary, and service facilities such as the barber shop and tailor, while the gymnasium is to the south of the complex. The theological school was closed by the Turkish government in 1971, but political discussions are now under way which, hopefully, will lead to its reopening.

The mansion at #73 Refah Şehitleri Caddesi, originally known as the Mavromatakis Köşkü, is now open as a museum belonging to the Inönü Foundation, which is operated by the family of Ismet Inönü, first Turkish Prime Minister and later President of the Turkish Republic. Ismet Inönü, known as Ismet Paşa, first rented the house as a summer home in 1924, when he recuperated there after an illness. The Inönüs bought the house in 1934 for 9,500 liras, with new furniture presented to them as a gift by Atatürk. In September 1937, after leaving political office, Ismet Paşa settled into the house, where later that same year he was visited by the newly appointed Prime Minister Celal Bayar. During the years 1938-50, when he served as President of the Turkish Republic, Ismet Paşa stayed in the official summer residences at Florya and Yalova, because of the number of officials who made up his entourage, while his wife, Mevhibe Hanım, preferred to spend most of the summers in the house on Heybeli with their children, Ömer, Erdal, and Özden. During the years 1950-60, when Ismet Paşa was the leader of the opposition party, he spent most of the summers with his family on Heybeliada, where in his daily excursions to the beach he was accompanied by many of the townspeople, with the younger ones joining him as he jumped into the sea feet first from the pier. During his next term as Prime Minister, 1961-65, he still went to Heybeliada whenever his schedule allowed, and after leaving office he again spent his summers there. After his death in Ankara on 25 December 1973, at the age of eighty-nine, the house on Heybeli remained closed for a few years, but later Mevhibe Hanım occasionally returned along with her son Erdal and his wife, Sevinç, who had spent her summers in a neighboring house. Eventually the family decided to have the house preserved as a museum under the Inönü Foundation, restored just as it was when Ismet Paşa moved there in 1937, with the furniture presented to him by Atatürk. Here the visitor can see a variety of objects, pictures, and personal mementos of Ismet Paşa’s public and family life.

The large marble street-fountain on Turgut Yolu is the Heybeliada Çeşmesi, built in 1917.

Iliasko Ikiz Evleri on the other side of the coach stop. Formerly the Hotel de la Grèce; guests included King Paul of Greece in 1921 and Greek Prime Minister Elefterios Venizelos in 1933.

In a little park next to the Naval High School there is a statue of Yesari Asim Arsoy (1896-1992), famous as the composer of a song celebrating Heybeli (see below in the description of Çam Limanı).

The Naval High School was founded in 1773 as the Mektebi Bahriye and moved to Heybeliada in the mid-nineteenth century. After the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923 the school was renamed the Naval War Academy (Deniz Harb Okulu). When the Naval War Academy was moved to Tuzla in 1985 the school on Heybeliada became the Naval High School (Deniz Lisesi). Among the foreign heads of state who were received here were King Paul of Greece (1952), Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia (1954), Shah Riza Pahlavi of Iran (1976), and Prime Minister Zülfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan (1976), all of whom arrived aboard the Savarona, Atatürk’s presidential yacht.

The Ben Yazkor Synagogue is on Orhon Sokaği in the Kuyu Mahalle, north of the village center. The former Greek Primary School is close by on Heybeli Mektebi Sokağı. The mosque, Heybeliada Camii, is on Hafız Kaptan Sokağı at the northwest side of the village.

The Greek Orthodox church of St. Nicholas (Hagios Nikolaos) dominates the main square of the village, two short blocks in from the sea bus iskele. It was erected in 1857 on the ruins of a Byzantine church dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron saint of mariners, appropriate for an island where virtually all of the men were seafarers and fishermen. The architect was Hacı Stefani Gaytanki Kalfa. The church was damaged in the 1894 earthquake, but it was soon afterwards repaired. It is cruciform in plan, with a dome on a high drum covering the central area, supported by four piers, and with barrel vaults over the four arms, a lofty clock-tower campanile rising separately from the main structure. Behind the altar is the tomb of Patriarch Samuel I, who died in 1775. A separate building in front of the narthex houses the hagiasma, or sacred spring, of St. Paraskevi (Hagia Paraskevi).

Mehmet Şakir Paşa, Ottoman diplomat; Princess Fahrünissa, painter, wife of the Emir Zeid; Aliye Berger-Boronai, painter; Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçli, writer, better known as the Fisherman of Halicarnassus; Füreya Kılıç Ali, ceramicist; Şirin Devrim, actress.

Vatican Embassy Villa: the future Pope John XXXIII lived here when he was Papal Nuncio in Istanbul.

A neoclassical building also known as Beyaz Sarayı, "White Palace"; built for Yorgi Sapuncakis Efendi by the Greek architect Fotiadis.

The St. Nicholas Hangar Museum Site, located in the fisrt settlement on Büyükada, is situated on a 1100m2 site.

The 700 m2 enclosed area, permanent exhibition galleries of 400m2, a temporary exhibition hall of 225m2, as well as a museum shop, workshops, café, storage areas, archives and offices.

An additional open area of 400m2 is used to host various cultural activities, meetings and as an open exhibition area. The St. Nicholas Museum Site was opened on 10th September 2010, after 5 months of restoration work on the helicopter hangar Permanent exhibitions of the museum are housed here. During the first months of 2011, the permanent exhibition site began to be enlarged, and a new temporary exhibition area, storage area, Office and social areas were added.

The monastery of St. Nicholas (Hagios Nikolaos) is on the eastern shore of the island, accessible by both the shore road and another road leading from the meydan below the summit of Yüce Tepe. The monastery is on or near the site of the Byzantine settlement of Karyes, which was abandoned in the seventeenth century after being devastated in a fire. The earliest mention of the monastery is by the English traveller Thomas Smith in 1680. The original katholikon of the monastery may have been built on and from the ruins of the parish church of Karyes. In 1783 the monastery temporarily housed a "School for Greek Classes," which subsequently was relocated near the Patriarchate in Istanbul as the Megale Scole, or Great School, which is still in existence.

When the Greek War of Independence began in 1821 the monastery was taken over by the Turkish Army. Later it was restored and served to accommodate Greek families from Istanbul on visits to Prinkipo. A fire in 1852 destroyed the interior of the katholikon, including the iconostasis and most of the icons. The church was rebuilt in 1860 according to the original design, a domed four-columned cross-in-square, the plan of virtually all Constantinople churches of the medieval Byzantine era. The supposition is that the original katholikon preserved the plan of the parish church of Karyes, which is believed to have dated from the Byzantine period. The attractive narthex, covered with a tiled roof, dates to 1873. Over the entrance there is a marble relief of a double-headed eagle, emblem of the Palaeologus dynasty, who ruled Byzantium during its last two centuries. On the exterior at the northwest corner there is an ancient Greek relief representing a chariot race.

The ruined Sivastopol Köşkü (Trotsky House) stands in its wild garden at the foot of Hamlacı Sokağı, which leads down to the north shore from Çankaya Caddesi. Leon Trotsky lived here in the years 1929-33, after being exiled from Russia, and it was here that he wrote his autobiography and his History of the Russian Revolution.

Trotsky left Büyükada on 17 July 1933, never to return. Despite his isolation on the island he seems to have enjoyed his exile there, as evidenced by the last entry he made in his notebook on the day he departed: "It has been four and one-half years. I have the strange feeling of having my feet firmly planted on Büyükada."

Con Paşa was Trasivolos Yannaros, the Ottoman official responsible for establishing regular ferry service to the Princes’ Isles

Manuk Azaryan Efendi, Ottoman diplomat; Ottoman general and writer Zeki Paşa; Turkish diplomat and writer Zeki Kemal Kuneralp.

Now the headquarters of the district governor of the Princes’ Isles, Adalar Belediye Kaymakamlığı.

Built in 1878 and restored in 1997-8 by Çelik Gülersoy of the Turkish Touring and Automobile Club; now open to the public as a cafe and Büyükada Cultural Center, which frequently hosts art exhibitions and musical events in its salons or its lovely garden.

Agopyan Köşkü formerly the Hotel des Princes, Hotel Bel-Er, Hotel Çankaya

The Armenian Catholic church of Surp Asdvadzadzin (Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin) is in Meşrutiyet Mahallesi about four hundred meters southwest of the iskele, on Mehmetçık Sokağı near its intersection with Kadıyoran Caddesi. This is a large basilica in the neoclassical style of the Italian Renaissance, built in the years 1856-58.

Büyükada Anadolu Club founded in 1906 as the Prinkipo Yacht Club. Notable guests have included Atatürk and Ismet Inönü as well as foreign heads of state: Elefterios Venizelos, Prime Minister of Greece (1924); King Amanullah Han of Afghanistan (1930); King Carol of Romania and Madame Lupescu (1933); General Metaxas, the Greek dictator (1936); Shah Riza Pahlavi of Iran (1964); and Nikolau Ceausescu, the Romanian dictator (1976). When Atatürk visited the club he stayed in Room 25, which is preserved as it was in his time. In the garden of the club there is a monument to Atatürk, dedicated in 1981 to mark the centenary of his birth. The club cannot be visited, but one can observe the beautiful buildings and grounds from the gateway.

Farther up 23 Nisan Caddesi and on the same side was the old Akasya Oteli, earlier known as the Hotel Calypso, whose distinguished guests included Prime Minister of Greece Elefterios Venizelos (1930) and King Zog of Albania (1934).The street on the left side.

Hotel Splendid Palas (formerly the Splendid Oteli), the oldest and grandest of the island’s extant hotels, founded in 1911. The hotel is an elegant period piece, with an enchanting central courtyard and much original furniture and period detail.

The monastery of St. George Koudonas crowns Yüce Tepe, the southernmost of the island’s two hills. A path leads up to the monastery from the meydan at the waist of the island.

According to tradition, the monastery was founded in 963, during the reign of Nicephorus II Phocas (r. 963-9). The earliest reference to it is in the chrysobull of 1158 by Manuel I Comnenus mentioned earlier. The name Koudonas, which in Greek means "of the bells," comes from the story that a shepherd was grazing his flock on this hill when he heard the sound of bells coming from beneath the ground; when he dug down he found an icon of St. George, which he and other locals enshrined on the spot. This story is traditionally dated to the year 1625, and it probably represents the refounding of the monastery rather than a new foundation. Legend aside, the first abbot of record, Isaias, started building the present katholikon in 1752 and completed the main church of the Blachernitissa seven years later, also adding a number of monastic cells. Several additions were made in the following half century by the abbots Anthemios and Arsenios. Meanwhile a number of miracles were attributed to the icon of St. George, which was especially effective in curing mental ailments and in exorcizing those "driven by unclean spirits."

The present complex consists of six separate churches and chapels on three different levels, the older sanctuaries being on the lower levels. On the ground floor are the abbot’s house and the main church of St. George, both built early in the twentieth century. On the southern interior wall of the church is the original icon of Hagios Georgios Koudonas, now clad in silver. On a corner of the icon is a much later inscription, a moving appeal by a young Greek woman, who writes, "Dear St. George, help me go to Athens and study pharmacology."

A flight of steps leads to the first level below. Just beside the steps is a chapel of the Virgin Blachernitissa. Beyond that is another chapel of St. George, where iron rings set into the wall indicate that this was the place where mental patients were confined in the hope that they would be cured by the wonder-working icon of Hagios Georgios Koudonas. The room at the bottom of the stairs is a tiny shrine with an hagiasma, supposedly the place where the sacred icon of St. George was excavated. Beyond that is another chapel, dedicated to the Holy Apostles.

The feast day of St. George is celebrated on 23 April when thousands of pilgrims from around the world—including Muslim Turks and other non-Christians—make their way to the monastery, many of them walking barefoot up the hill to attend the dawn service. After the service many of the pilgrims have lunch at the little outdoor restaurant on the hilltop, celebrating the day that traditionally marks the beginning of spring according to the old calendar. The restaurant serves simple meals and snacks, as well as its own unlabled red wine. The hilltop is embowered in pines, cypresses, and other trees in a setting reminiscent of the Greek isles, particularly when the bells of the monastery are ringing in this ancient shrine.The feast day of St. George is celebrated on 23 April when thousands of pilgrims from around the world—including Muslim Turks and other non-Christians—make their way to the monastery, many of them walking barefoot up the hill to attend the dawn service. After the service many of the pilgrims have lunch at the little outdoor restaurant on the hilltop, celebrating the day that traditionally marks the beginning of spring according to the old calendar. The restaurant serves simple meals and snacks, as well as its own unlabled red wine. The hilltop is embowered in pines, cypresses, and other trees in a setting reminiscent of the Greek isles, particularly when the bells of the monastery are ringing in this ancient shrine.

The view from the summit of Yüce Tepe is superb, encompassing all of the Princes’ Isles and the Asian shore of the Sea of Marmara, a prospect duly praised by Grosvenor, although the villages that he mentions have now all been amalgamated into the urban sprawl of Istanbul:

The view from this peak is the most extensive which Constantinople affords. From the height of six hundred and seventy feet the eye sweeps over the sea and comprehends the eastern shores of the Marmora. Northwest, beyond the island group, the fairy outline of Stamboul and Kadikeui fringes the sky, while the sombre point of Phanaraki advances in the foreground. North and east along the sinuous Asian coast, village presses upon village, each enriching the landscape with the tints of natural beauty or association.

It is Europe’s largest wooden building, and the second largest in the world, according to Jak Deleon. The building was erected in 1898 by a French company, who planned to open it as a grand hotel called the Prinkipo Palas, with a gambling casino on the style of Monte Carlo. But Sultan Abdül Hamit II refused to give permission for such an establishment and it never opened. The building was then purchased by Eleni Zarifi, widow of the banker Leonidas Zarifi, who donated it to the Ecumenical Patriarchate on condition that it be used as an orphanage. The Greek Orphanage, which had been at Balıklı in Istanbul, reopened here in 1903, helped by a gift of 146 gold pieces donated by Abdül Hamit II, who also gave it tax-exempt status. The orphanage closed in 1964 and has since fallen into ruins, though it is still a most impressive site, one of the principal landmarks of Büyükada as seen from the sea.

According to tradition, the monastery was founded in the Byzantine era, and implicit reference to it seems to have been made in a chrysobull issued in 1158 by the emperor Manuel I Comnenus.

The monastery fell on hard times later in the Ottoman period, but it withstood these difficulties through the support of the guild of the Greek linseed oil merchants in Istanbul and an endowment from the Feneriote nobleman Pascharnikos Christodoulos Vlachoutsis. Patriarch Gregory V lived there in 1809; the former patriarch Chrysanthos moved to the monastery when he retired in 1826 and died there eight years later. Patriarch Sophronius was in residence during the years 1866-70, and through his efforts the monastery was restored and the present katholikon completed in 1869, in accordance with plans drawn by the architect Vasilis Dimitriou.

What remains of the monastery are its katholikon and an adjacent two-storey wing on its south, as well as some out-buildings on the western part of its grounds. The katholikon preserves the carved wooden iconostasis from the earlier church, gilded and decorated with floral and plant designs in both low and high relief. The doors of the Oraia Pylai are particularly notable, with eight small icons in their panels, the most remarkable being a depiction of the Annunciation, all dating from the eighteenth century. There is also a fine eighteenth-century Offertory Diptych, with Christ in the traditional Deesis representation atop the panels, flanked by the Virgin and St. John the Baptist. Set into the south exterior wall there is a replica of an ancient Greek funerary relief, dating from the second half of the nineteenth century.

There are monasteries on both of the island’s hilltops, and there is a third on the eastern shore below Yüce Tepe, the southern peak. All three monasteries are accessible from the meydan at the waist of the island, to which one can take a fayton from the village.

Isa Tepesi, the northern peak, is crowned with the monastery of the Transfiguration (Hagios Sotiros Christou). On the way up to the monastery one passes a huge wooden structure that once served as the Greek Orphanage, now abandoned and falling into ruins.

The monastery of St. George Koudonas crowns Yüce Tepe, the southernmost of the island’s two hills. A path leads up to the monastery from the meydan at the waist of the island.

This includes the temporary exhibitions of the Museum and the Adaevi, the cultural enterprise of the Islands Foundation. The Çınar Museum Grounds opened on 31st July 2010 with two exhibitions, following three- months of preparation. Ada Sahillerinde Bekliyorum (From the Shores of the Islands) and Adalılar (Islanders)exhibitions were open for one year.

The most notable mosque on Büyükada is Hamidiye Camii, which is four hundred meters south of the iskele on Ada Camii Sokağı. The mosque was built in 1892-3, and is named for Sultan Abdül Hamit II (r. 1876-1909). The main entrance, approached by a double stairway, is on the second floor of a three-storeyed structure that gives access to the prayer room, which is square in plan and covered by a dome.

The Hesed Le Avram Synagogue is in Yalı Mahallesi, about six hundred meters east of the iskele on Pancur Sokağı, one short block south of Zagnos Paşa Caddesi. The synagogue, founded in 1903, is distinguished by the tripartite ogive Moorish arches in its façade and the copper-covered dome over its prayer room.

The Roman Catholic church of San Pacifico is in Meşrutiyet Mahallesi about 350 meters south of the iskele, at the intersection of Lala Hatun Sokağı and Yeni Sokak. This is a large basilica in the neo-Gothic style, with a wooden roof, built by the Franciscans in the years 1865-6. Above the altar there is a large painting by the Italian artist Giovanni Battista depicting San Pacifico, flanked by Sts. Ignatius and Sophia, as they fly over the Princes’ Isles.

The other church is at the corner of Zagnos Paşa Caddesi and Alaçam Sokağı. This is the Metropolitan Church of St. Dimitrios (Hagios Dimitrios), the patron saint of Prinkipo. Since 1923 St. Dimitrios has been the seat of the Metropolitan Bishop of the Prinkiponisa, whose aegis extends over all the Greek Orthodox churches of the Princes’ Isles, which were previously part of the Metropolis of Chalcedon (Kadıköy).

The church was designed by the Greek architect Fistikos Kalfa and built in 1856-60. When the foundations were being laid workers unearthed an ancient column capital, now displayed in the courtyard, with a relief monogram of the emperor Justin II (r. 565-78). The church is a large three-aisled basilica in stone with three entryways, flanked by vaulted arcades. The nave is separated from the side aisles by twin colonnades of four columns each, capped by wooden Ionic capitals and linked by arches. The main altar is dedicated to St. Dimitrios and the two side chapels to St. Pandeleimon (Hagios Pandeleimon) and the Prophet Elijah (Hagios Profitis Ilias). The central vault of the main aisle has a medallion portrait of Christ Pantocrator, the All Powerful. The gilded pulpit, which is built against the second column on the left, is decorated with portraits of the four Evangelists. The baroque patriarchal throne stands against the third column on the right. The elaborately carved iconostasis is made of marbled plaster. The icon of St. Dimitrios in the nave, dating from the seventeenth century, is clad in beautiful silverwork. The icons in the two side chapels are also exceptionally fine works.

The church of the Panagia is at the far end of Fayton Meydanı. The church is dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God (Koimisis tis Theotokos), whose feast day is August 15, one of the major holy days of the Greek Orthodox Church. The original site of the church, which was founded in 1735, was near the Greek cemetery on the southern slope of Isa Tepesi. It was erected on its present site in 1793 and was renovated in 1871. The central icon on the carved wooden iconostasis is a Deesis, in which Christ is flanked by the Virgin and St. John the Baptist. Other icons on the screen depict Sts. Paraskevi, Dimitrios, Barbara and Nicholas. The iconostasis is also adorned with three friezes representing biblical scenes in chronological order. The intricately carved wooden ambo, or pulpit, is noted as one of the finest in all the Greek Orthodox churches in Istanbul; its adornments include paintings of the four evangelists, and the carved wooden figure of a bird whose widespread wings served to hold the Gospels.

The village square one block in from the ferry landing is Saat Meydanı. At its center is the conical-capped clock tower erected in 1923, the year that the Turkish Republic was founded. On the right side of the square, at the beginning of 23 Nisan Caddesi, is the Hotel Prenses Büyükada, formerly the Ankara Palas Oteli, a comfortable modern hotel with Art Deco detail.

Gülistan Caddesi, the shore road that runs past the ferry iskele, is lined with restaurants and cafes, as are the streets that lead off from the ferry landing. Iskele Meydanı, the square in front of the ferry iskele, is flanked on its left by the Saydam Planet Hotel, formerly the Hotel Delakuridis.

The lead-domed terminal building of the regular ferry, distinguished by its octagonal passenger hall, was designed in 1899 by the architect Mihran Azaryan of Izmit and completed in 1915. The tile revetment was made by Mehmet Emin Efendi of Kütahya. The upper floor was used as a cafe in the years 1918-23; from 1923-50 it was the District Office of the Republican Party’s Adalar (Islands) branch; in 1950-51 it housed the island’s first indoor cinema. The building was restored in 1999-2000, when Çelik Gülersoy of the Turkish Touring and Automobile Club created an elegant cafe on the upper floor, with a large balcony commanding a view of the Asian shore of the Marmara, an ideal spot to take refreshments before or after touring the island.