Izmir

Izmir – ancient Smyrna located on the shores of the bay, it is the most important commercial port on the Aegean Sea and the third largest – with approx. 2,4 million inhabitants – city ​​of turkey. Like any metropolis, it struggles with social and environmental problems. The outskirts of Izmir are veritable slums, and the very center at rush hour turns into one huge swirl of exhaust fumes, from which you can only escape in winding, narrow streets of a vast shopping area. But Izmir is not only about the suburbs and exhaust fumes, but also a modern city with wide boulevards and a large park in the very center. We can find some old mosques here, a fortress on a hill, as well as the remains of the ancient agora. The collections of the local museums are also quite good. Tourists treat the city primarily as a base or a transfer point on the way to Bergama, Sardis and Selcuk (Ephesus) be Cesme – a recently increasingly popular holiday destination. We also have to pass through Izmir, and since we're here, then we can spend one day visiting it.

History

Natural harbor, what is today's Gulf of Izmir, it was noticed already in early antiquity. But it wasn't here that the eldest lay, prehistoric part of the city. In years 40. of the last century, a group of archaeologists approx. 5 km north of the center of Izmir (in the Bayrakli district) discovered a settlement dated to half 111 millennium BC. Dear people, we only know this much, that they came from somewhere far away in Asia, and the first arrivals from Greece (Aeols) Approx. X w. p.n.e. Here too, according to the traditions and beliefs of the ancients, the legendary Homer was to be born, who lived at the turn of the 9th and 8th centuries. p.n.e. Three centuries later, one of the oldest Greek temples in Asia Minor was built on this site – temple of Athena. Then the Lydians attacked Smyrna several times, and later the Persians. The city was temporarily taken over by the Greeks from Ionia. About 500 r. p.n.e., as a result of these tragedies (the city was completely destroyed), Smyrna has become a little girl, an insignificant village with a dozen houses.

Only the times of Alexander the Great were to bring glory and prosperity. The Macedonian chief ordered a fortress to be built on the Pagus hill (today Kadifekale Velvet Fortress), and at its foot a new city, to which he relocated the inhabitants of Smyrna. Soon, thanks to Lysimach's diadoch, it flourished so much, that it became one of the most distinguished Ionian cities. In Roman times (from 129 r. p.n.e.) Smyrna was almost counting 100 thousand. inhabitants and was a famous trading center. On the hill was the magnificent Acropolis surrounded by mighty walls; a long aqueduct brought clean water to the city from the distant mountains.

W 178 r. the city experienced the worst earthquake in its history. At the behest of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Smyrna began to be rebuilt and after 3 years the work was completed. In gratitude to the emperor, the happy inhabitants of Smyrna erected a monument to him. Already then, the first Christians slowly began to settle here. One of the seven churches of Asia was located here, and the first bishop of the local Christian community was St.. Polycarp, by order of the Roman governor, St. 153 r. burned at the stake. Over time, however, Christians have grown strong enough, that they delegated their bishop to the ecumenical congress convened by Constantine the Great in Nicaea (Iznik) w 325 r. Thanks to the strong Christian tradition, the city was resided here in the Byzantine times by a metropolitan subject only to the patriarch and this was the case throughout the empire.

In the 7th century. the city experienced frequent invasions by Arabs, but the citadel withstood the sieges. It did not die until the 11th century., when Smyrna was attacked by the Seljuk Turks. Through close 20 it had been in their hands for years, until the imperial army recaptured the city with the beginning 1 crusades (1097). At the end of the 12th century. Smyrna was managed on the basis of a special grant by the Genoese due to the then huge role of the local port. But after several decades they lost control of these lands, because the Turks from the emirate in Aydin began to venture there. They have won, headed by Umur Bey, fortress and city, which even briefly became the capital of their principality in Asia Minor. The army sent by Pope Clement VI only managed to recapture the city, and the citadel was still in Turkish hands. This strange situation lasted until the beginning of the 15th century.

For some time, Smyrna was ruled by the knightly Order of the Knights Hospitaller, who had their main base on the island of Rhodes at the time. They held Smyrna to 1402 r., when their Tamerlane came upon them, who at the head of his horde captured the city after a two-week siege. After his retreat, he left them under the control of the Aydin emirate. The Ottomans came to this area during Murad I., w 1415 r. by conquering Smyrna, which from then on became a permanent part of the empire. The city became the most important port for the Ottomans after Istanbul, which brought them back to life after a troubled past (it was almost completely razed to the ground during the invasions of Tamerlane and the Ottoman Turks).

For Suleiman the Magnificent, as part of developing the empire's foreign trade. Europeans were allowed to trade freely in Turkey and to settle in Smyrna. Merchants were guaranteed inviolability and complete freedom of manners within the city limits. Spices were the basic goods exported from Turkey at that time, face, carpets and a bit later – kawa. Soon the population of Smyrna reached 100 thousand, as in the times of Roman prosperity. Many Greeks settled here, Jews, Armenians and several hundred European merchants. Izmir has become a truly cosmopolitan city, who his scheduled, enchanted travelers with its Ottoman and European buildings. It ended with the advent of the Turkish-Greek war in 1922 r., when, as a result of hostilities, Izmir was completely consumed by fire. Little is left of the magnificent historic buildings today. We can only come across here and there (in the old quarter) for several houses or some strange building, it's not a warehouse, you them, but you can see, that he remembers the times of the city's pre-war splendor. Taken over by the Turks again, Izmir very quickly developed into a large metropolis with modern buildings. Fortunately, the uninteresting architecture is compensated by the ubiquitous greenery.