Büyükada

Island · AdalarIstanbul,Türkiye

The largest of the Princes' Islands off Istanbul, carless for generations, its pine hills carrying timber mansions, an abandoned orphanage and a hilltop monastery.

Büyükada has banned the private car for generations — the loudest sounds on its lanes are bicycle bells and, until recently, hooves. The largest of the Princes' Islands, it grew as a summer refuge for Istanbul's Greek, Armenian, Jewish and Levantine families, who raised extravagant timber mansions among the pines. Two wooded hills crown it: one holds the abandoned Prinkipo orphanage, once the largest wooden building in Europe; the other lifts the whitewashed monastery of Aya Yorgi. Leon Trotsky passed four exiled years here, writing in a rented house above the shore. Today you step off the ferry into a town of faded belle-époque facades, then head uphill as the streets surrender to shade, resin and glimpses of sea. On the two feast days of Saint George the track to Aya Yorgi fills with tens of thousands of pilgrims, most of them Muslim women. An outbreak of horse disease closed the phaeton stands in December 2019, and a month later the city bought out all 277 carriage licences. Battery minibuses do the climbing now. The grand houses grow quiet each winter, then every spring the island fills again with day-trippers, the ring of bicycles, and the smell of salt.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The two saint's days fill it — on 23 April and 24 September tens of thousands climb to Aya Yorgi and the ferries jam; midweek gives you the same island nearly empty.
The summit is a real walk — bicycles carry you to the inland saddle, but the last cobbled kilometre up to Aya Yorgi is too steep to ride and has to be climbed.
The grandest mansions hide inland — the seafront strip is the island at its most crowded; the quiet back lanes climbing into the pines are where the great carved köşks stand behind their overgrown gardens.
Late afternoon lights the timber — the carved fretwork and pastel boards of the old köşk mansions glow warm as the sun drops, and the harsh midday flatness lifts.

Things to do

1
Carry a thread up the hill
Buy a spool of coloured thread from the stalls at Birlik Meydanı, tie the loose end at the foot of the climb, and let it pay out behind you. The track is a cobbled kilometre called Azap Yokuşu, walked in silence and without looking back; if the thread reaches the monastery unbroken the wish is said to hold. At the top people light candles in the whitewashed courtyard, and on the way down they hand out sugar cubes.
2
Cycle the pine loop
Pick up a bicycle near the pier and ride the shaded ring road away from the crowded seafront. Let the lanes carry you inland under the pines, past carved timber mansions in faded pastels, and coast down to a quiet stretch of shore on the far side.
3
Find the sand the other islands do not have
Büyükada is the one island here where you walk into the sea over sand rather than stone; Yörükali is the best known of its beaches. Halik Bay on the same shore has the longest beach in the islands, though there the bottom turns to shingle underfoot. On Heybeliada and Burgazada next door you go in off bare rock instead.
4
Find the great ruin
Head up the northern hill, quieter than the Aya Yorgi side, until the enormous abandoned Prinkipo orphanage rises through the trees. Stand back at the fence line, take in the sheer scale of the empty timber facade, and let the silence of the pines around it settle.