“Little Waterside Mansion”
Market: Thursday
Küçükyalı is a quiet residential suburb on Bağdat Caddesi between Bostancı and Maltepe. It’s Thursday market is lively but otherwise there’s little to bring an outsider here except perhaps for a rather obscure archaeological park behind the modern Küçükyalı Çınar Cami.
Parts of Küçükyalı sit on the Sea of Marmara and until the mid-20th century there were several beaches here. Now although there is a coastal promenade the sand is long gone.
Küçükyalı archaeopark
What were long assumed to be the the remains of the ninth-century Byzantine Satyros Monastery or palace of Bryas now seem more likely to be the remains of a large domed cistern for storing water in the countryside far outside the boundary of Constantinople. Apparently a church with three aisles and a dome was built above the cistern. Although both structures appear to date back to the ninth century, the church appears to have been renovated in the 12th.
Italian archaeologists who worked here in the 2000s concluded that the church might have formed part of the Satryos monastic complex which was near the palace of Bryas – which would indicate that the remains of both these structures still lie waiting to be discovered in the vicinity.
Unfortunately although offices for an archaeopark have been built there was no side of their being staffed when I visited so you could only look at the ruins through the gate and fences.
Transport info
By far the quickest and easiest way to get to Küçükyalı is to take the Marmaray. Once at the station turn right along Bağdat Caddesi and keep walking until you see the mosque on the left-hand side of the road along Kurtuluş Sokak. Küçükyalı is also on the Metro from Kadıköy but the station is further away from the archaeopark than the Marmaray.
Nearby areas
Maltepe
