Trabzon - Page I
Trabzon City View
Trabzon was founded as Trapezus (meaning table) in the 8th cent. BC by Greek colonists coming from
Sinop, itself a Miletion colony. In 1204, the armies of the Fourth Crusade,
consisting of the Venetian navy and European knights, captured and sacked
Constantinopel. They murdered the Byzantine Emperor and crowned one
of their of own, Baudouin of Flanders, Emperor of the East. A few days later Alexis
Comnenos, a descentant of his namesake of the 11th century,
landed at Trebizond and declared himself the lawful Emperor of Byzantium. Under the rule of the Comneni Trabzon flourished and reached its greatest
splendor. Alexius III (1349-90) made the city one of the world's leading trade centers, renowned for its great wealth and artistic
accomplishment. The Empire of Trebizond endured until 1461, when it was overrun by
Mehmet the Conqueror. Under the Ottomans Trabzon became the starting point of caravans to Persia.
Until the first quarter of this century Muslims and Christians lived side by side and the call to
prayer mingled with the sound of church bells. Trabzon was included (1920) in the short-lived independent state of Armenia and also the Greeks had the intention to make it part of a Greek Pontic Republic. After the war of independence and the creation of the Turkish
republic, the city's large Greek population was deported in 1922-23.
Trabzon is mostly situated on a table like promontory above the harbor and has many historic monuments. The best preserved is the 13th-century Church of Aya Sophia (now a museum), an excellent example of Byzantine architecture. The
citadel Orta Hisar and the Church of St. Anne (Küçük Ayvasıl Kilisesi) are among the oldest remains.
Click on the thumbnails to get a greater picture
