Читать книгу Abandoned Places: 60 stories of places where time stopped - Richard Happer - Страница 13

KAYAKÖY

DATE ABANDONED: 1923

TYPE OF PLACE: Town

LOCATION: Turkey

REASON: Political

INHABITANTS: 2,000

CURRENT STATUS: Preserved

CAUGHT ON THE WRONG SIDE OF A SHIFTING BORDER DISPUTED BY WARRING NATIONS, THE POPULATION OF KAYAKÖY WAS EVICTED WHOLESALE AND AGAINST THEIR WISHES IN AN ACT OF ETHNIC CLEANSING.

Peace among the ruins

In the ninety years since these houses were abandoned their rafters and doors have been stripped by human hands and nature’s powers, leaving only walls and chimneys standing proud of the rubble. However, despite the desolation, this is a very peaceful and enchanting place. Grassy streets run between the hundreds of crumbling hovels. Simple churches offer sanctuary from the burning sun. Olive trees flourish in the echoing town square. In spring, wildflowers add a splash of sweet melancholy to the ruins. Above it all rise the sleepy green hills which seem to hold the village in an embrace.

Kayaköy is a peaceful place to wander through, but this quiet serenity belies the fact that the town as it is today was born from vicious ethnic violence.

Trading places

Kayaköy was founded as the Greek village of Levissi in the eighteenth century. Its population surged after the nearby village of Fethiye was shattered by an earthquake in 1856. Levissi became a centre of Greek Orthodox worship with more than twenty churches and chapels built in the village and on the surrounding plain.

At the end of the First World War, the victorious Allies promised Greece territory that had been held by the Ottoman Empire. In 1919, Greek forces set out to seize these lands, occupying Smyrna and several other cities in Anatolia (the Asian part of Turkey).

However, the Greek army was eventually defeated by Turkish forces and the disputed territory was incorporated into the Republic of Turkey. There was then a population exchange between the two countries: Greeks living in Turkish territory returned to Greece and vice versa. The numbers were huge – at least a million Greeks made the move and 500,000 Muslims were displaced from the Greek territories. The wholly Greek town of Kayaköy was left deserted when its population was forcibly sent to a motherland that the people barely knew.

The spiritual atmosphere amid the stones

As well as its atmospheric, tumbledown houses, Kayaköy has several interesting historic sites. A handful of buildings have been restored and one is home to a small museum that explains the history of the settlement. There is a splendid fountain in the middle of the town and two notable Greek Orthodox churches. Known as the Lower and the Upper Churches, these are small and built in a seventeenth century gothic style.

Inside the Upper Church.

The scattering of roofless houses seen from above.

The Lower Church was at the heart of the town.

The Lower Church is the better preserved, with traces of blue and gold on its altar. Crowning the highest hill in the town is the Upper Church, the older of the two. Outside the building, the mosaic courtyard is still in remarkably good condition. Inside, the church presents a very poetic picture of decay. Scattered holes in the roof let in shafts of sunlight, illuminating the interior as if to suggest that somebody up there still cares about this place.