Heybeliada & Halki Seminary

Island · AdalarIstanbul,Türkiye

A carless pine island in the Sea of Marmara with swimming coves and a hilltop Orthodox seminary, closed to students since 1971 but still standing.

Heybeliada is the second-largest of the Princes' Islands, a pine-covered ridge in the Sea of Marmara with a hill at each end. You arrive by ferry at a small waterfront of fish restaurants and cafés, then climb. There are no private cars: bicycles, walkers and an electric minibus set the pace, pine needles soften the paths, and the air smells of resin and salt. Trails lead to pebble swimming coves and up the Hill of Hope, where a red-roofed courtyard looks out over the water. That courtyard belongs to the Theological School of Halki, founded in 1844 on the grounds of the far older Monastery of the Holy Trinity. It trained Orthodox clergy until it closed in 1971, and its buildings and celebrated library still stand under monastic care, shut to students. A walled naval school campus holds the other hill. Between them sits the summer house of İsmet İnönü, kept as a small museum. Heybeliada is emptier than neighbouring Büyükada, and for many the more restful of the two.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The Marmara opens only at the top — pines hide the sea for most of the climb up the Hill of Hope, so hold out for the clearing by the seminary.
The pier is the busy part — a quarter-hour on foot along the shore road, past the last cafes, and the day-trippers thin to almost no one.
Not a walk-in — caretakers still live on the site and the grounds are visited by prior arrangement, so most people see the red roofs from the hill road, not the courtyard.
High summer is when the pines smell — resin runs in the heat, so July and August carry it strongest on the inland trails; in winter those paths smell only of salt.
Red roofs against dark pine — the seminary reads best from a distance, framed by hillside forest, not up close against its walls.

Things to do

1
Climb to the top of the Hill of Hope
Save the Hill of Hope for late afternoon. Follow the shaded road up until it levels near the seminary's gate, then stop where the ground finally opens. The low sun turns the pine tops gold and the red roofs warm, and the ferries far below crawl like toys across the water.
2
Swim from a pebble cove below the pines
Follow the shore road out from the pier until the pavement gives way to pebble coves tucked below the pines. Pick one, leave your things on a warm rock, and slip into the clear, cool Marmara. On a calm morning the water sits glass-still over the stones.
3
Cross from one hill to the other
Heybeliada is under half the size of Büyükada next door, and its inland trail runs between the two hills that crown it — the seminary's on one, the walled naval campus on the other. Pine and cypress close over the path for most of the way, and the sea shows only in gaps. Those openings, not the walking, are what you stop for.