Sinan’s birthplace Population: 4,000
It would be wonderful to report that the pretty little Central Anatolian village near Kayseri where the great Ottoman architect Sinan grew up boasted one of his mosques but of course it was far too small and remote from Constantinople for the court officials who held the pursestrings to bother endowing it with anything.
Instead, fans of Sinan should come here to see the house that is “symbolically regarded as Sinan’s birthplace”, as the Foundation to Protect and Promote Environmental and Cultural Values (ÇEKÜL), the organisation responsible for its restoration, puts it. Visitors will see a fine stone house equipped as it might have been in the days when Sinan played there as a child before he was taken to become a janissary in Constantinople (İstanbul).
The house stands above one of the curious underground cities for which Cappadocia is famous, which, here, has been press-ganged into service as a photographic gallery for images of his best known buildings.
A bust of the great man, modelled on the one presiding over his grave in the Süleymaniye district of İstanbul, stands in front of the local library.
Sinan aside, Ağirnas is a pleasant place to visit with many fine old houses and the Church of St Procopius (1857) restored to serve as a cultural centre.
Sleeping
Most people will probably want to visit Ağırnas on a day trip from Kayseri.
Transport info
There are unexpectedly few buses from Kayseri to Ağırnas (24km). They leave from behind the town-centre cemetery.
