KUTAHYA TURKEY

Kütahya

Phrygian Valley

The region defined as Phrygia Epiktetus, a mountainous terrainwithin the triangle of Kütahya, Afyonkarahisar and Eskişehir,is today called the Phrygian Valley (Frig Vadisi). The Phrygian plateausare covered with tuff, porous volcanic rock from the Turkmen Mountain,an old volcano in the east of Kütahya. These plateaus wereinhabited by the Phrygians between BCE 900-600. From that period, open-airtemples, altars, and rock tombs dedicated to the Mother Goddess Cybele andmany other structures, for defence and shelter, have survived. In the region,where Romans and Byzantines later settled,the traces of madder-dyed crosses, escriptures and frescoes can still beseen. Deliktaş Castle and Penteser Castle arerock-cut structures carved by Phrygians and Byzantines.The region is attractive, pristine, and worth visiting, featuring pine forestsand natural rock structures resembling Cappadocia.

The Phrygian Way is a 500-kilometre-long trekking andcycling path marked with international standards. It was created on the basisof the roads used by the Phrygians in the Phrygian Valleys between the Ankara,Afyonkarahisar, Kütahya and Eskişehir provinces. To facilitate access, theentire path is marked with red and white colours. On the Phrygian Way, thereare Phrygian Houses as well as village rooms and boardinghouses. Offering three main routes, the journey in the Kütahya lands beginsfrom Yenice Farm of Ahmetoğlu village, located at the 15th km of the Kütahya-Eskişehir highway. It is approximately 150 km from Eskisehir Yazılıkaya.

Aizanoi Ancient City 

Aizanoi Ancient City (Aizanoi Antik Kenti) is one of themost important ancient cities. It is in the Çavdarhisar district,approximately 47 km from Kütahya. It is believed that the cityof Aizanoi emerged when the mythological hero Azan,son of the legendary king Arcas and the Dryad Erato wasborn. Azan is mentioned in ancient sources as the leader of Phrygians whowere living around the sacred cave of Goddess Meter Steunene inthe upper part of Penkalas (Kocaçay) Creek.

Aizanoi was rediscovered and examined by European travellersin 1824. Since 1970, excavation works have been carried out regularly everyyear. Among the ruins are the Temple of Zeus, the best preserved ofits kind in Anatolia, the world’s first Commodity ExchangeBuilding, a theatre-stadium complex, built in an adjacent order and unique inthe world, two Turkish baths, a peristyle street, and fivebridges spanning the Kocaçay River, two of which have survived, alongwith two agoras, a gymnasium, the sacred area of MeterSteunene, a necropolis, an ancient dam, waterways and gates. AizanoiAncient City was a contemporary of such cities as Ephesus,Bergama, and Side.

Temple of Zeus

The Temple is on a podium in the middle of an area surrounded by colonnadedgalleries, 200 meters from the west side of the Penkalas (Kocaçay)River.

There is a stairway to the underground cella (a sacred chamber in thetemple), which is dedicated to the Phrygian Goddess Meter Steunene,and reaches the roof. Especially the acroters of the structure, which is one ofthe best- preserved Ionic temples in Anatolia, areinteresting. The western pediment has a bust of the Goddess Cybele atopthe middle acroteric acant, with carvings of branches and leaves. The eastpediment features a bust of Zeus. There are inscriptions praisingthe Emperor Hadrian and Apuleis, who was importantfor Aizanoi, on the front gallery walls. The Temple, with itsfour-column courtyard and agora, was built between BC 117 and 138.

Kütahya Castle 

Inhabited since antiquity and thus one of the greatest witnesses of thepast, present and future, Kütahya Castle (Kütahya Kalesi) wasreinforced with repairs and additions by the Seljuks, Germiyanids and Ottomans;its walls were strengthened by the Byzantines in the 5thcentury. The castle consists of three parts: upper, inner, and lower. Accordingto Evliya Çelebi, Kütahya Castle has 72 bastions and isthe third-largest castle of Türkiye due tothis feature.

Grand Mosque 

Also known as the Yıldırım Beyazıt Mosque, it is thelargest and most beautiful mosque in Kütahya. While it lacks acourtyard, the rectangular plan mosque, restored by Mimar Sinan duringthe Rhodes expedition of Suleiman the Magnificent,was later largely repaired and took its final form with a dome. Large columnsinside the mosque were brought from Aizanoi Ancient City. Inthe inner section, there is a small fountain, and, on top of the fountain,there is a four-column muezzin gallery. The main venue of the mosque is coveredwith two domes, side by side, and half domes on the sides supported with sixcolumns. It is worth visiting just to see the tile panel depicting the Kaaba onthe right of the mihrab, which is covered by a half dome.

Tiled Mosque

The mosque was built by painter and ney (a type of flute) player AhmetYakupoğlu in 1973. The structure reflects an example of CentralAsian Turkish architecture with its style and ornamentation.The inner side of the octagonal structure with two storeys and one dome isdecorated with hand-drawn designs and the outer side with specially producedblue Kütahya tiles. It is an original example with its Turkish motifsand architecture.

Mevlevi Lodge - Dönenler Mosque

Built as the whirling house of the Mevlevi Lodge (Mevlevihane) inthe 14th century, it is an original example of early period AnatolianTurkish architecture. This first Mevlevi Lodge of Kütahya underwenttwo repairs and the whirling house and dervish cells are still intact. Thestructure has a rectangular plan almost like a square and an octagonal pulley.The whirling house was converted into a mosque with subsequent repairs and byadding a mihrab. Locally, it is known as the Dönenler Mosque. Onthe entrance door of the mosque, there is a tile inscription from19^th century. The masjid adjacent to the structure was builtby Imadüttin Hezar Dinari, known as the Conqueror of theSeljuk Period of Kütahya, and became the mausoleum of the MevleviLodge upon the burial of Ergun Çelebi, the grandson of Rumi.

Dumlupınar Martyrs’ Memorial

The Dumlupınar Martyrs’ Memorial (Dumlupınar Şehitliği) wasbuilt to commemorate the soldiers who were martyred on all fronts during the Warof Independence. It was opened to visitors with a grand ceremony on August30, 1992, the anniversary of The Battle of Dumlupınar. TheMartyrs’ Memorial consists of the Three Commanders’ Monument, theMilitia Monument, a 500-person symbolic martyrs’ cemetery and epigraphs,The Martyr Father-Son Monument, the Mehmetçik Monument,the Namazgâh and the Fountain.

Tile Museum

The Tile museum (Çini Müzesi) showcases ceramic architectural elementsproduced in Kütahya and İznik; tile inscriptions,tile vases, plates, panels and household items made of tiles are exhibited inchronological order. The entrance of the museum features the world’ssecond largest stone inscription, written in Ottoman Turkish.

Archaeology Museum

Also known as the Vacidiye Madrasa (Vacidiye Medresesi). Amongthe exhibits are pieces belonging to the Palaeolithic sincethe Late Miocene period, and the Chalcolithic, Old Bronze,Hittite, Phrygian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottomanperiods. One the few intact Amazon Sarcophagi in the worldis exhibited in the museum.

Evliya Çelebi Culture and Art House

The house where Evliya Çelebi, the renownedtraveller, scientist, historian, author and folklorist from Kütahya,was born. The Mausoleum of Kara Ahmed Bey, the grandfather of Evliya Çelebi, islocated in the garden of the house. The old building next to the mansion hasbeen turned into a centre for traditional handicrafts.

Zafertepe Çalköy Triumphal Arch

The Arch is in Zafertepe Çalköy, on the hill where the FieldBattle of the Commander-in-Chief took place. August 30 ceremonies areheld here. The distant view of stacked weapons and the Triumphal Arch(Zafer Anıtı) evoking a flaming torch symbolize the TurkishWar of Independence. The Arch inspires future generations to achievevictory by uniting sooner or later against enemies both inside and outsidethe Turkish nation.

Dumlupınar War of Indipendence Museum

The museum is built on the battlefield where the War of Independence tookplace, and was established to commemorate the war. Exhibits feature variousweapons, swords, photographs, documents and tools, and other items.

Mızık Çamı (Pine)

The baby cradle of Osman Gazi, the founder of the OttomanEmpire, was hung upon this larch-type pine. While the tree was damaged in1980 as a result of natural factors, it had been recorded as 11 meters tall,4.70 meters in circumference, and about 740 years old. It was registered asa monument tree.

Historical Kütahya Houses

Numbered among the examples of 19th century civil architecture and thewooden architectural characteristics of Anatolia, the Kütahya houses(Kütahya evleri) preserve their original forms. These picturesque twoand three-storey houses carry the best examples of the old mansion architectureto the present, with wooden buttress corbels, window arrangements and wideeaves. The typical Kütahya house is generally large. Theexterior surface is painted in white, mustard yellow, indigo-blue or ochre, andplastered with clay soil. The houses are particularly notable on Germiyan and Ahierbasan Streets.