Lomography

Sirince, an Ancient Greek Village in the Turkish Country.
written by azurblue on October 28th, 2009 , 2 comments (5 votes)

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8 km east from Selçul, you can find the picturesque village of Sirince.It is very easy to reach with a Dolmus (a mini bus) for a non-expensive ticket (about 2€). If you are not aware of narrow mountain roads, don’t have a look through the window.

Sirince is an old Greek village of about 600 inhabitants. Most of the houses were built around the 19th century. But after First World War, the Greeks migrated to Greece, leaning Sirince empty until 1924, when Turks from Salonika, Kavala, Provusta, and other Greek towns arrived as a part of the population exchange between the two countries.

There are souvenir shops, restaurants, a few guesthouses, the mosque and two churches. The Church of St John the Baptist was built in 1832 and restored by an American Foundation. Sirince is also famous for its wine production, flavored with fruits: peach, strawberries, and so on.

What did I enjoy there? Surrely not the souvenir shops (although I made shopping at a better price than in Istanbul), because it reminds my ugly touristic spoiled face of the French Riviera!

I appreciated the architecture of the houses and the view of the peppers and eggplants drying under the sun, the calm of the upper part of the village (there are no vehicles in the narrow streets).