Iznik seeks tourist revival with ceramics and historic past

Iznik, Bursa (Dunya) – This charming, lakeside, farming community of 22,000 persons hopes that a reawakening of ceramics manufacturing and its past as an important center of the Christian faith and as former capital of two empires will help draw more foreign tourists.

But efforts by the townsmen to build new hotels to attract greater numbers of travelers have run into a stone wall. The Council for the Preservation of Historic Sites has blocked the building of new hotels and pensions, and the central government hasn't been supportive of the town's municipality, which is controlled by an opposition party.

The Council says that almost any new construction in Iznik could permanently damage the remains of historic Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman buildings and Christian and Muslim shrines, hidden under layers of strata.

"We have all of these resources in hand, but we can't make use of them,"  complained Ismail Eker, 45, a member of the town council and a builder of vegetable crates. "We know that tourism is Iznik's salvation for the future, but we have been stymied. This is a town that is losing population."

The town's remoteness also doesn't help. It is located off the beaten track, and only one or two bus companies operate to the city from Istanbul, Ankara and Bursa.

 

Tucked away at the eastern end of Iznik Lake, Turkey's fifth biggest inland body of water and the largest lake in the Marmara region, the town is 200 km (120 miles) southeast of Istanbul, 385km (231 miles) west of Ankara and 77 km (46 miles) northeast of Bursa.

Iznik, which is also the capital of the county with the same name, is located in Bursa province. The turnoffs (there are two) to the town are near the town of Orhangazi, on the Istanbul-Bursa highway. Iznik can also be reached from Ankara via the city of Adapazari.

Pleasant outdoor cafes and restaurants, such as the Umut Restaurant, line the shore of Iznik, giving it a lazy holiday ambiance, as a brisk wind blows in from the lake, and choppy waves wash ashore.

The specialty cuisine of the town is fried or sauteed catfish, a huge boneless fish caught in Iznik Lake, and delicious salad and vegetable dishes, served with olive oil. 

Several hotels can be found by the lakeside, including the Belekona, serving visitors, but they are in short supply in Iznik.

Farmers in their tractors rumble through the streets of the town, taking produce to the marketplace.

 

History

The verdant, fertile region around Iznik has attracted inhabitants since prehistoric times. Mounds or tells, believed to be remains of prehistoric settlements, are located four km (2.6 miles) north of the city.

Surrounded by five km (three miles) of thick double walls, Iznik has been inhabited since Hellenistic times.

Antigonus, a lieutenant of Alexander the Great, founded the Iznik in 316 B.C. on an earlier settlement, and named it Antigonia. Six years later, Lysimachus, a general of Alexander, took the town and renamed it Nikaia (Nicaea), after his wife.

The town was well planned and built in a regular grid pattern that has been maintained throughout the millennia, though the town has been leveled several times by powerful earthquakes. Even today, Iznik is still cross-shaped.

The walls of the town have four main gates, 12 sub-gates and 100 towers. 

Bithynia, a regional power, gained control over the town in next century, and Nicaea became its capital. Bithynian King Nicomedes IV who had no sons, bequeathed his kingdom to the Romans around 74B.C. The Roman period lasted until 323 A.D.

The Byzantine era lasted from 323 to 1081. When Roman Emperor Constantine consolidated his power, he decided in 323 A.D. that Byzantium (Constantinople, or modern day Istanbul) would become the new capital of the Roman Empire.

 

Nicene Creed

Two years later, in 325 BC, he convened the 1st Ecumenical Council of Nicaea to hammer out the Nicene Creed,   the basic precepts of the Christian faith.

The Sestus Palace, where 300 top church officials met for more than three months to draw the Nicene Creed, has been lost, but is believed to be buried under hundreds of houses inside the northern walls of the town.

The ruins along the shoreline, which were believed to be the site of the palace, were actually identified two years ago as being parts of the Iznik's ancient port.

Several Ecumenical Councils followed. The Seventh Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 787 rejected Iconoclasm, or the smashing of icons, thus permitting the use of icons in worship. 

The Council was held in the Church of Haghia Sophia, the best preserved Christian shrine in Iznik today. The church was turned into a mosque by the Seljuk Turks, who eventually conquered the town and most of Anatolia following the Battle of Manzikert 1071. The founders of the Turkish Republic in the 20th century turned it into a museum.

In 1081, Seljuk Prince Suleyman turned the town into the capital of the Seljuk Empire, but Seljuk rule was very brief. 

The Crusaders, in their quest for the Holy Land, conquered the town in 1097, but left it to the Byzantines.

In 1204, the rapacious Venetian-led Crusaders sacked and conquered Constantinople, and the Byzantine princes fled to Nicaea, which then served as the capital of the much-reduced Byzantine Empire until1261, when they re-conquered Constantinople.

The Ottoman period in Iznik lasted from 1331 to 1920. Many of the early sultans built mosques, baths, and monumental tombs in the settlement. The town was also the training grounds for many Ottoman princes and heirs to the throne.

After the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, and changed its name to Istanbul, the sultans brought the world's 500 best potters and ceramicists from Tabriz to Iznik, which became the empire's center for ceramics and pottery.

The exquisite ceramic tiles that grace the mosques and palaces of Istanbul and other cities in Turkey were built in the kilns of Iznik from the 15th to the 17th centuries.

Support for the Iznik ceramicists fell as the Ottoman Empire declined. By the 18th century, ceramics production in Iznik and the art of making ceramics had all but disappeared, with artists moving on to the city of Kutahya, which became a major ceramics producer.

 

Ceramics revival

During the past 30 years, the town has been experiencing a revival of ceramics production, thanks to Esref Eroglu, a municipal employee who left the civil service to restart ceramics making in Iznik.

After months and years of study in ceramics making in various Ottoman archives in Turkey and abroad, he and his wife, an artist, began producing Iznik tiles, based on original designs and colors, at a small atelier along the walls of the town. 

Mr. Eroglu died in 1999, but his wife and two daughters, who are ceramicists educated at fine arts academies, continue his work at Iznik Cini, a ceramics company he and his wife founded.

Hundreds of other ateliers have sprouted in Iznik, which now sell their ceramics, made from quartz, glass dust and clay, around the world and to tourists visiting the town. All are family operations. No industrial company operates in the town

Several streets in the town as well as old bazaars are lined with shops selling Iznik ceramics.