Trabzon

Trabzon, Turkey

The restored Hagia Sophia of Trabzon stands on a seaside terrace at sunset, with a stone path leading up to its pale walls.

Trabzon is a Black Sea port where Greek, Byzantine, Genoese and Ottoman layers sit between steep green mountains and the sea.

The place

Trabzon is a port city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey, and the capital of the province that bears its name. The metropolitan area holds about 824,000 people. Behind the waterfront the land climbs quickly. The Pontic Mountains run through the province, most of it is hills rather than flat ground, and high plateaus are used for summer grazing. That geography shapes everything. Roads hug the coast or twist inland over passes, houses cling to slopes, and the sea is rarely out of sight. The city centre is compact and walkable, organised around a large open square usually called Meydan, with older quarters spreading down towards the harbour and out along the shore. Boztepe, the hill above town, gives the clearest sense of the layout: a ribbon of buildings between green slopes and grey-blue water. Trabzon has no railway, which surprises many arrivals, so people come by air, by road or along the coast highway, and the port still matters for freight. For centuries sailors treated the city as a landmark in bad weather, and it later became a trading gateway towards Persia and the Caucasus. Today it feels like a working regional capital rather than a resort: students, shipping offices, tea houses, football talk and a busy market district. Most visitors use it as a base for monasteries, highland villages and mountain lakes such as Uzungöl, and the weather is part of the bargain, because the coast is this green precisely because it is wet.

Its story

Trabzon began as a Greek trading colony. Settlers from Miletus, arriving by way of Sinope, founded it in 756 BC and called it Trapezous. Before that the coast belonged to local peoples, among them Colchian and Chaldian groups, and Greek writers later named neighbours such as the Macrones and the Chalybes. The newcomers formed a small Greek enclave rather than a state of their own, and for a time paid tribute to Sinope. A silver drachma from the fourth century BC, now in the British Museum, suggests that money-changing was already part of daily business. The city later passed under Achaemenid rule after Cyrus the Great, then into the Kingdom of Pontus, which stood up to Rome until 68 BC, and then into the Roman and Byzantine worlds. Its grandest chapter followed the Fourth Crusade in 1204, when Trebizond became the capital of its own empire, one of the states that carried Byzantine tradition forward. The Genoese rebuilt the fortress in 1306 and named it for its beauty, though little of that survives. In 1461 the Ottomans took the city, and the port again carried trade towards Persia and the Caucasus. In 1845 Italian Capuchin monks, expelled from Tbilisi, founded the Catholic church that still holds services. The result is a layered town where churches became mosques, a Genoese ruin sits above Ottoman streets, and the Greek name Trapezous still lies behind the modern one.

What to see

Culture

Trabzon sits in the eastern Black Sea region, where folk music and dance are still part of ordinary celebration. The best-known dance is the horon, performed in a tight line or circle by men, women, young and old, at weddings, festivals and harvest gatherings. It is quick, shoulder-to-shoulder and driven by the high-pitched sound of the local fiddle-like kemençe. Researchers link it to the eastern Black Sea rather than to any outside tradition, and locals treat it as their own. Trabzonites have a reputation for being religiously conservative, patriotic and fiercely loyal to family, friends and country, and outside the urban centre the rhythms of village life from the hills remain strong. Football is nearly a second religion here, and Trabzonspor shirts in the club's colours are everywhere on match days. Hospitality is real but unfussy: expect tea, plain speech and a certain dry humour. The city's history shows in its buildings, since former churches are now mosques and a small Catholic congregation still worships in the old town. Religion is a living part of daily life rather than a museum subject. Keep voices low when entering a mosque or church, remove your shoes at mosque doors, and cover shoulders and knees, women also carrying a scarf for the head, whenever you enter a place of worship.

What to wear

Trabzon's traditional dress belongs to the wider eastern Black Sea style, made from wool, cotton and woven cloth suited to a wet, hilly climate. Women's village dress traditionally features striped or checked woven cloths, such as the fota wrapped at the waist or head, with layered skirts and aprons. Men's festive dress for the horon is dark and fitted, often with braided trim and a sash. These outfits now appear mainly at weddings, folk festivals and dance performances rather than daily life. On the street, Trabzon looks like a conventional Turkish city. Men wear jeans, jackets and football shirts, younger women dress in a range of modern styles, and many older and more religious women choose long coats and headscarves. In rural areas and in the mosque district clothing is noticeably more conservative than on the coast of the Aegean or Mediterranean. A visitor should dress for rain first: a light waterproof, quick-drying layers and shoes with a good grip for wet cobbles and steep paths. Summer is mild enough for short sleeves, but carry a jumper for the highlands. For mosques and churches, cover shoulders and knees, and women should carry a light scarf for the head. Smart-casual is fine in restaurants and tea gardens, and modest swimwear is the norm on public beaches.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. July and August are the warmest and driest months for reaching the highland pastures and lakes, although spring is mild and dry while autumn brings heavy rain. Winter can close mountain roads, and the inland D915 should not be attempted then.

How long. 2–3

Getting there. Fly to Trabzon's airport and take a taxi or bus into the centre. There is no railway and no regular passenger ferry. By road, the coastal D010 highway runs from the Georgian border at Sarp (about 2½ hours) and from Samsun (about 4½ hours). Buses from Istanbul take about 18 hours; from Erzurum about 4 hours.

Budget. mid

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

Sources