Home to a fine Ottoman house Population: 13,500
Market day: Wednesday
Just inland from Çanakkale and Ezine, Bayramiç is a small town that tends to get overlooked by visitors despite the fact that it is home to a fine Ottoman house, the Hadımoğlu Konağı (closed Mondays), that is open to the public.
The back streets around the 14th-century Büyük Cami have all been designated a conservation area so presumably many of the late 19th and early 20th-century houses will eventually be restored. Despite its lofty position and the Ottoman gravestones and tomb beside it, the mosque itself is of no great interest.
When you walk into town from the bus terminal (still mercifully in the centre) you will quickly see the Çarşı Cami that dates back to 1889 and acts as a handy landmark. If you cross the square beside the mosque and then turn left you will come to the konak on a corner.
Hadımoğlu Konağı
This lovely 17th-century house was home to two brothers from Hadım, near Konya, who moved here and made their fortune as tanners.
Externally austere, it opens onto a courtyard whence you can admire its double-fronted facade, the külhane where the private hamam was stoked and a little room over the door where the custodian could check on visitors before opening the gate.
The large, flagstone-floored ground floor is adorned with a central fountain and pieces of stonework taken from the site of ancient Skepsis nearby.
The finest rooms are on the first floor where a corridor runs the length of the building. Above the stairs at one side a taht (throne) was either really or merely symbolically used as a seat of judgement. The wall of the toilet is adorned with a much later sketch of Mt Ida.
The main rooms have magnificent wooden ceilings and wall panelling, all of it richly painted. They are also decorated with images of İstanbul, one of them showing houses grouped together much as in a modern housing estate. As in Safranbolu there are many quirky period details – here a pair of carved doors that conceal a system for bringing food from the kitchen downstairs.
Best hotels
Most people will prefer to stay in Ezine or Çanakkale.
Transport info
Regular buses link Ezine with Bayramiç (24km) – you pick them up on the main road in front of the bus station rather than in the bus station itself.
