Population: 7,000
Old names: Caesarea, Kaisareia, Prosellemmene, Hadrianopolis
Market day: Wednesday
Let’s just say that Eskipazar is not an easy town to love. It may have a rather romantic name (“Old Market”) but the modern town is the usual concrete jungle with very little to redeem it. The only vaguely interesting building is a new clocktower built from the distinctive yellow stone (sarı traverten) that is mined locally. Pavements are made from this stone too, as is the Sarı Kale, the Yellow Castle that was built above the town to serve as a restaurant in 2013.
The only reason for a visitor to stop here would be to head out to explore the important remains of ancient Hadrianopolis, three km west of the town centre. Hadrianopolis appears to have been founded as a Hellenistic city but survived into the 8th century. It was renamed in honour of the emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD. Excavations here have uncovered a treasure trove of Roman mosaics, many of them featuring animal scenes.
Centrepiece of the sprawling archaeological site is a huge Byzantine church with mosaic floors that is now protected inside a shed. Unfortunately this was locked when I visited so it looks as if it’s only worth visiting in summer when the archaeologists are most likely to be working.
Sleeping
There are no hotels here and no reason why you would want to stay when there is such a good choice of accommodation at Safranbolu, near Karabuk. 
Transport info
The only transport that actually serves the centre of Eskipazar is the minibus from Karabük.
Otherwise, intercity buses pass along the main road from Bolu to Karabük, dropping you off about 4km to the south at Mermer. Leaving Eskipazar, the different companies provide servis transport to get you to Mermer. Arriving, however, you’re on your own with only one rapacious taxi driver waiting to run you into town. Unless you can visit from Karabuk it’s really only worth visiting if you have a car and know that the site will be open. Visiting from Bolu is unlikely to be worth the cost and effort.
To complicate matters further, there are three separate bus companies serving Mermer/Eskipazar and, since they all leave from their own offices, to get complete departure information you need to visit each one in turn.
