Bursa
Bursa, formerly Brussa, provincial capital in northwestern Anatolia, Turkey, 20 km from the Sea of Marmara, 225 m above sea level, on the southern edge of the Bursa basin (peach and vegetable crops), at the foot of Ulu Dağ, with (2018) 1.92 million Residents of the fourth largest city in Turkey.
University (founded in 1975), including Art and archaeological museum; The country’s textile and ready-to-wear center; Mechanical engineering, automobile, canning and silk industries (formerly also silkworm breeding); also a tourist and bathing resort (sulphurous and iron-containing thermal springs in the western suburb of Çekirge).
Cityscape
According to Relationshipsplus, the important buildings of Bursa from the early Ottoman period are foundations of the sultans: The large sultan’s mosques all belong to the T-shaped building scheme, in which two lateral ivans are pushed against a domed central space yoke and another domed space yoke with the mihrab joins in the direction of the kibla. – The mosque Murad I (in Çekirge) was built between 1366 and 1385 using Byzantine and Italo-Gothic motifs. In the mosque of Bajasid I. Yildirim (1391–1400) the elements of the early period have been eliminated; the cool, classic effect of the building is underlined by the use of gray marble blocks. In the Yeşil Cami (Green Mosque) Mehmed I. (Completed in 1423) Persian-Timurid influences come into their own in the architectural sculpture and in the tiling. Opposite the Yeşil Cami stands the Yeşil Türbe (Green Mausoleum) Mehmed I (1419) as an octagonal domed structure, slightly raised. The main mosque in the center of the city (Ulu Cami, begun in 1396) basically represents the type of a courtyard mosque covered by domes over each space yoke (pillars). The foundations also included madrasas (integrated into the building as “galleries” of the Murads I mosque) and v. a. the donors’ tombs (tombs). In Çekirge the thermal baths that are still in use today: the one created under Murad I and under Bajasid II. expanded Eski Kaplıca (Old Thermal Bath) and the Yeni Kaplıca (New Thermal Bath), a foundation of the Grand Vizier Rüstem Pascha from 1553.
History
Bursa, around 184 BC Founded by Prusias I of Bithynia as Prusa, stood since 74 BC. Under Roman, later under Byzantine rule. In 1326, after ten years of siege, it was conquered by Orhan, the son of Osman I, and served as the residence of the Ottoman sultans until 1365 (relocation to Edirne). Even after that, Bursa remained the economically (trading and processing of silk and cotton) and culturally most important city of Ottoman Anatolia. The city has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014.
İzmir
İzmir [ izmir], formerly Smyrna, rapidly growing provincial capital in western Anatolia and third largest city of Turkey, on the Gulf of Izmir (Aegean Sea) (2018) 2,930,000 residents (1915 198 400 1965 411 600 1985: 1.49 million residents).
It is estimated that 40% of the population live in Gecekondu settlements. İzmir is the seat of a Catholic Archbishop of the Latin Rite; NATO command »Land Forces Southeast Europe«; four universities, archaeological research institute for Western Anatolia, Goethe Institute, archaeological museum, painting and sculpture gallery, Ataturk Museum; State symphonic orchestra, state opera with ballet and state theater, cultural park (46 ha; with exhibition pavilions and some of the museums). İzmir is considered an important commercial and financial center in Turkey. An international trade fair (İzmir Fuarı) takes place here every year. The industry includes a steelworks, assembly of trucks and buses, manufacture of bicycle and motorcycle tires, a superphosphate factory, textile, carpet, tobacco and food industries as well as an oil refinery (PEKTIM / TÜPRAS Petrochemie, 50 km north near Aliağa). In İzmir is the most important Turkish port on the Aegean coast (average national and international cargo handling: 3.3 million t / year), shipyards, a free production zone (Aegean free zone) near the international airport. A rapid transit network is under construction. The city is also a tourist destination.
Cityscape
Remains of the Hellenistic-Roman agora have been preserved from ancient times (on the west side 13 columns with capitals, relief torsos from an altar, on the north side remains of a 160 m long, three-aisled market basilica). The remains of the dilapidated citadel with defensive walls down to the sea date back to the Hellenistic period. a. from late Byzantine and Ottoman times. In Bayraklı, the river Halkpınar Suyu (Meles in antiquity) forms a small lake called the “Bath of Diana” (after an Artemis statue recovered from the water); ancient column bases can be seen on the ground. Smyrna is considered to be Homer’s home.
History
In today’s Bayraklı district was the Greek Smyrna, which was built around 1000 BC. Was founded as an Aeolian colony and around 700 BC. Fell to Ionians from Colophon. This “old Smyrna” was created by the Lydian king Alyattes around 600 BC. Conquered and destroyed. Village settlements emerged in the urban area. First the Diadochi Antigonus I and Lysimachus founded around 300 BC BC on the site of today’s İzmir »New Smyrna«, which developed into an important trading city. In the late Roman-Byzantine period, Smyrna was the most important port in western Asia Minor due to the silting up of the ports of Ephesus and Miletus. Around 1424 the city, which had meanwhile lost a lot of its importance, finally fell to the Ottoman Empire. From the 17th century İzmir and its fertile hinterland experienced a strong boom (lively maritime trade with Venice, Genoa, Ragusa, later mainly with France and England). In the 18th / 19th In the 19th century, numerous island Greeks immigrated to the island. İzmir, which was occupied by Greeks in 1919, was defeated in the Greco-Turkish War (1920-22) by the Turks under Mustafa Kemal Recaptured in 1922, with most of the city burned and almost all of the Greek population fled. After that, the city was rebuilt in a modern, but largely haphazard manner.
