“Donkey-bag Island” Population: 4,400
Old name: Halki
The second largest of the Princes Islands, hilly Heybeliada takes its name from the supposed resemblance between its profile and the shape of a heybe or donkey bag. As the boat pulls into the jetty you will see, to the left, the huge Naval High School with its brightly painted facade. This is off-limits to visitors which is a shame because lurking in the grounds is the Church of the Panagia Kamariotissa, the last church built by the Byzantines before the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and the last resting place of six of the city’s Greek patriarchs.
Instead on Ümit Tepesi (Hope Hill, 85m) you can admire the exterior of the Monastery of Hagia Triada, which dates back to at least the 9th century. To it is attached the Halki Seminary, which was founded as school of theology in 1844. In 1894 a huge earthquake destroyed all but the Seminary chapel; the rest of the building was reconstructed two years later. In 1971 the Turkish courts ruled that all private higher education bodies, including the Seminary, must be affiliated with state-run universities, leaving the patriarchate without a local body to train its priests. This has been a long-running sore in the relationship between Turkey and Greece which would like to see the Seminary reopened, but although some land has been returned to it it has still not been allowed to start teaching again.
Turkey’s second president, İsmet İnönü, spent some time in a sanatorium on the island and then maintained a home in the Mavromatakis Köşkü there too. In theory it’s open to the public. In practise you’ll probably arrive to find it locked.
Mary Ann Whitten’s An Island in Istanbul: At Home on Heybeliada (2006) describes what it was like for an American to buy and then live in a house on the island.
Sleeping
Merit Halki Palace, Heybeliada. Tel: 0216-351 9550
Transport info
Heybeliada is the second to last stop on the Princes Islands ferry route from Kabataş.
You can also get here by ferry from Bostancı on the Asian shore.
