Trabzon

 
Overview

Trabzon is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeast Turkey. Built as a church in the 13th century, the city's Hagia Sophia has served as a hospital and a museum, but today is a mosque with restored ceiling frescoes.

Description

The Trabzon Museum, set in an early-20th-century mansion with rococo and art-nouveau elements, traces the city’s history with archaeological and ethnographic exhibitions. Founded by Greek traders from Miletus in the 8th century BC, Trabzon has been handballed down the years between Cimmerians, Medes, Hellenes, Byzantines and a succession of other peoples. Once an important stop on the Silk Road, it remains the Black Sea's busiest port. Somewhat louche, it's the most sophisticated city in the region, too caught up in its own whirl of activity to worry about what's happening in far-off İstanbul or Ankara.