Turkey’s Flower Capital Population: 22,000
Old name: Caystrus
Market day: Friday
Festival: Flower Festival, usually last week of April
The small town of Bayındır, near İzmir, sits at the heart of the part of Turkey where most of its garden plants are grown in kilometre after kilometre of nurseries running here from Torbalı. It’s an unexpectedly pleasant little place sitting against a hill with a picturesque old quarter centred on the Hacı Sinan mosque complex (under restoration in 2014).
Around town
The mosque complex makes a good place to start your explorations.
It dates back to 1496 and includes a hamam and other buildings that might have been a library and medrese, the latter with pillars and capitals from ancient Caystrus reused in its twin porticoes.
Across the road from the mosque the Eski Hükümet Binası (Old Government Building) has been pleasingly converted into a small boutique hotel. If you strike uphill behind it you will come to a couple of small mosques and mescids -the Darül Kurra Cami and Çinli Mescid – that also retain traces of ancient Caystrus in their porticoes.
The eastern side of the old part of town on the hillside was once the Greek and Armenian quarter. The Armenian church dating back to 1857 has been completely restored and provided with a rather unnecessary maroon cover. I was unable to get inside but the frescoed walls had obviously been repainted. Some old tombstones have been preserved against the outside walls.
The Greek Orthodox church has vanished without trace although the Papaz Evi, the fine house in which its priest used to live, still survives. In the backstreets around it there are other fine old houses in varying states of repair as well as some splendid views back down over the town.
The Turkish quarter on the western side of the old part of town is not in as good a state of repair. Many of the houses are gecekondus presumably lived in by the people who work in the flower nurseries. Many were for sale when I visited in May 2014.
Worth looking out for at the top of this quarter is what was once a large communal çamaşırhane (laundry) with a castellated back wall and a fine fountain at the front. Sadly, it is disused and completely neglected.
Back down in the newer part of town the Belediye Binası (Town Hall) is a magnificent stone structure with landscaped gardens at the back. If only all belediye buildings could look like this…
Also in the newer part of town is the Kent Müzesi (City Museum) housed in what was once the old stone-built Tekel Binası. Beautifully presented, it contains a lot of information about the efes, the Turkish paramilitaries who once roamed this part of the world wearing outrageous costumes. 
The Bayındır Friday market is one of the better ones to visit not least because it is frequented by elderly women from nearby villages who wear a costume that includes a black cotton shawl with a white pattern around the edge that is called a siyah çizgi or a peştamal. Strangely the shawls cannot be bought in Bayındir since they are made in nearby Ödemiş – where nobody wears them! The siyah çizgi comes paired with an önlük (apron) with thick vertical stripes rather like those worn around Rize on the Black Sea.
Sleeping
Transport info
Buses from İzmir otogar run to Bayındır ever half-hour, travelling via Gaziemir and Torbalı. During the festival they continue to run until early evening. Buses also connect Bayındır with Ödemiş.
Trains connect Bayındır with İzmir and Aydın.
Day trip desttinations
Photo in City Museum of local woman in siyah çizgi headscarf
What the fashionable efe about Bayındır used to wear
