The Armistice town Population: 87,000
Old names: Apameia Myrleia, Montagnac, Montania
Market day: Monday
Fancy a quick trip out of İstanbul? Why not head for Mudanya, a small resort town on the southern shore of the Sea of Marmara, just 15 minutes’ drive north of Bursa.
Nothing could be simpler. Just log on to the İDO İstanbul seabus website, check the timetable, book a ticket, head for Yenikapı, and away you go. A couple of hours later and you’ll be alighting in Güzelyalı whence all you need do is walk out to the main road, turn right and hop onto the next passing bus (it’s trickier in winter when the İDO timetable is reduced).
Around town
Mudanya is the sort of place that you could be forgiven for passing through without stopping since its main street has little to show for itself, bar a long line of oh-so-familiar grocery shops and one truly delightful olde-worlde teahouse. But in the late 19th century this was a town that received a distinct boost from the arrival of the railway which brought it within easy reach of Bursa. The result was that the streets running back from the sea quickly filled up with a network of fine houses including a few İstanbul-style yalıs (wooden seaside mansions).
Until recently these yalıs had been virtually abandoned, along with the smaller Ottoman houses of wood and stone that congregated around them. Now the lovely Şükrü Bey Yalısı, dating back to 1895, has been completely restored and turned into a hotel. The frilly woodwork of the roofline will be familiar to İstanbullus from many Arnavutköy models. However, the steps up to the main door and the lovely ceiling above the porch evoke the back streets of Ayvalık or even Yeni Foça, and hint at the fact that there was a large Greek population here before the 1923 population exchange.
Sure enough, not far away the Uğur Mumcu Cultural Centre is housed inside what must have been an enormous church in the late 19th century.
An even more impressive mansion right on the seafront is the whitewashed Mütareke Evi (Armistice House), originally built for a Russian merchant named Alexander Ganyanhof. In October 1922 this was where İsmet Inönü, later the country’s second president, signed a treaty with representatives of Britain, France and Italy that effectively brought Turkey into existence as a new country. Later the building was bought and restored by a local businessman before being acquired by the state in 1937.
Inside you can see the room where the treaty was signed with mannequins of the main players in the story sitting stiffly at a table in their army uniforms. You can also inspect a room that served as a study for İsmet İnönü, then simply İsmet Paşa in the days before Atatürk persuaded everyone to adopt a surname. For many visitors the real interest will probably lie in the chance to admire the sort of decoration and furnishings that would have filled all the nearby houses in their heyday.
Across the road from the Mütareke Evi a monument to the armistice stands in a small park while in the road outside an outsize statue of a dove with an olive branch in its mouth hammers home the message of peace.
Although there were Greek and Roman settlements in the vicinity, there’s very little to show for pre-19th-century Mudanya today: just the restored brickwork of the high street mosque which dates back to c. 1500, and the remains of what must have been an impressive double-domed hamam (Turkish bath) and small han in the back streets. The hamam in particular looks like a prime candidate for restoration which may well come in the foreseeable future given the speed of development.
A small building near the harbour that was built in the First National Architecture style popularised in İstanbul by Vedat Tek and Kemaleddin Bey now serves as Mudanya’s Sosyal Tesisleri (Social Facilities), a great place to grab a glass of çay.
A new Tahirpaşa Kent Müzesi (City Museum) has opened in Mudanya although I have not had a chance to visit it.
SleepingHotel La Fontaine. Tel: 0224-543 1041
Transport info
İDO seabuses run from Yenikapı in İstanbul to Güzelyalı, a short bus ride from Mudanya.
Day trip destinations
