Dedicated to Nükhet Şerifoğlu for all her hospitality in Büyükada and in loving memory of her mother Nüshet Hanım and her husband Adnan Şerifoğlu
An old photo showing the inhabitants of the Büyükada leaving the ferry and walking towards their homes
This is the story of an island in Marmara Sea just a ferry ride away from İstanbul. Büyükada which literally means the ‘big island’ is the biggest of the nine islands in Marmara Sea. These islands are a part of İstanbul but have always felt like another world throughout the ages. The history of the islands date back to the Byzantine Era where they were used to send fallen emperors for exile away from the centre of Constantinople so that they would not form a threat to the throne. That is why Byzantines called them the ‘Princess Islands’.
Five of these islands including Büyükada became a haven for the minorities such as Laventines, Greeks, Armenians and Jews during the Ottoman Era from 1800 onwards. Elites of these communities residing in İstanbul built incredibly elegant mansions as their summer houses on these islands. This was when Büyükada was called Prinkipo. a name used by the Greeks.
An old postcard from Prinkipo
The legend says that the paranoid Sultan Abdülhamid II would send spies to the Princess Islands to figure out what the minorities were up to.
An old photo from Büyükada
What we understand from the memoirs and photos of the old inhabitants of this island is that they were up to ‘joie de vivre’. That is a life in which they enjoyed music, dance, sun bathing, swimming, sports, picnics and ‘promenades’.
Büyükada is a ‘paradis perdu’ as nothing is left from its ‘joie de vivre’ except for the reminder of its old inhabitants and their life styles and that is its elegant mansions. A quick glimpse at contemporary Büyükada can easily tell you that the old joie de vivre is replaced by chaos, noise and traffic. A reflection of the hustle and bustle culture of the contemporary world.
I would definitely recommend you to spend a day on Büyükada to see the beautiful mansions in order to have a feel of the glory and elegance the island once had. Here are some examples of these elegant mansions so you can have a glimpse at them.
When you are on Büyükada, you will be fascinated to see the diversity and the elegance of these mansions which is a reminder of the glory the island once had! These mansions belonged to the wealthiest and the most elite families of the Ottoman Era. Most heirs of these families unfortunately left the island to move abroad so there are so few families that have been on the island for generations, today.
Büyükada once had horse carriages and no cars were allowed on the island. The municipality decided to ban horse carriages and replaced them with electric cars that led to noise, traffic and chaos. I want you to imagine Büyükada with its tranquility and the sound of horse carriages rather the sound of buzzing electric cars when you visit the island.
We have had a chance to live in Büyükada in summers from 2002 to 2006 in a beautiful mansion that looked like an elegant wedding cake with a beautiful garden. This mansion is a living reminder of the elegant life style the island once had.
We lived in the upper floor of this beautiful 19th century mansion from 2002 to 2006 during summer. Our lovely landladies Nüshet Hanım and her daughter Nükhet Hanım along with her husband Adnan Bey were wonderful hosts
The beautiful garden of the mansion
Dear Nüshet Hanım (sitting) with her lovely daughter Nükhet Hanım (on the left) with my mom on a beautiful summer day on Büyükada in our garden
Büyükada like all other islands in Marmara Sea is a ‘paradis perdu’ and I can not stop feeling a deep nostalgia for the elegance and the tranquility it once had!
Let music say the final word!
