Earthquake-battered town Population: 522,000
Market day: Tuesday
South-west of İstanbul, Adapazarı, the capital of Sakarya province, will forever be associated in many people’s mind with the dreadful Marmara earthquake of 1999 that claimed the lives of so many of its residents.
Despite having a history dating back to the 4th century BC, it is an almost completely modern town best known for its automobile industry. The 1999 quake was only the latest and most devastating of a sequence of quakes which have written off almost all the historic buildings, bar one konak from the 1920s in the town centre.
The earthquake damage has since been repaired and the city centre now has many open spaces but there is little to detain the average tourist.
The tiny museum (closed Mondays) beside the train station is housed in a building dating back to the 1950s and displays finds from the days when Adapazarı was part of the Roman province of Bithynia but it’s poorly lit and you can barely make out the lovely 20th century satin quilt that is its finest exhibit.
A second museum, the Deprem Kültür Müzesi, commemorates the horrors of the 1999 earthquakes, mainly through photographs taken at the time. While of rather specialist interest it is also incredibly moving.
Deprem Kültür Müzesi
Don’t leave town without: sampling ıslama köfte, tasty meatballs served on meat-juice-soaked toast
Sleeping
Transport info
There are regular buses from İstanbul to Adapazarı. The journey takes two hours.
Electric trains travel five times a day from Gebze station (the eastern terminus of the Marmaray) to Adapazarı. Adapazarı station is right in the town centre beside the bleak Kent Meydanı.
Minibuses to Taraklı leave from the lower level of the enormous otogar.
Read more: http://turkeyfromtheinside.com/blogbloggingaboutturkey/entry/59-return-to-adapazari.html
