The Saint Nicholas the world knows as the figure behind Father Christmas came from this stretch of the Turkish coast. Born at Patara around AD 300, he became bishop of Myra, the ancient city that lies within present-day Demre in Antalya province. The church raised over his grave still stands in Demre and is visited as the Saint Nikolaos Memorial Museum. It is the main reason people come to the town, and the ruins of Myra, its old harbour at Andriake and a museum of Lycian finds are all close by.
Who Saint Nicholas was
The ministry's museum page describes him as the son of a rich grain trader. Patara, where he was born, was then one of the region's major ports and held the assembly hall of the Lycian League. He went on to lead the church at Myra, and the date the ministry gives for his death is 6 December 365, when he was 65. Sailors and children regard him as their protector, and tradition remembers him as the saint of miracles. It is the guide to Patara, his birthplace, that names him as the man behind Father Christmas.
The church in Demre
Myra's own people built the church for their bishop, and it was repaired more than once in later periods. Two things inside are worth your time. Paintings on the walls tell the miracles credited to him, and a Roman sarcophagus, carved with acanthus leaves and a pattern of fish scales, is the one held to be his. Note the careful wording used on site: tradition places his burial here, but his remains no longer lie in it.
Where his bones went
The tomb is empty for a reason. In the age of the Crusades, merchants from the Italian city of Bari carried his bones away, and they were placed in a basilica dedicated to him there. Not every relic left, though: bones believed to be his are on show in the Antalya Museum, so travellers heading on to the city can see them.
Myra, the city he served
Myra was a city of weight, not a quiet country see. It sits between Kaş and Finike and owes its name to the Myros, the stream now called the Demre, which supplied it through a channel cut in the rock and in the end smothered it in silt. It ranked among the six members of the Lycian League that cast three votes each, and under Theodosius II, from 408 to 450, it was the chief city of all Lycia. Arab raids came from the seventh century on, and after it fell in 809 the city faded. Above ground today you will find a Roman theatre, one of the few to survive largely whole, and tombs cut into the cliffs beside it and along the river necropolis; their carved reliefs are what make the climb worthwhile.
Andriake, the harbour
Down at Çayağzı, where the Kokarçay reaches the sea, Andriake served as Myra's port. The ministry recalls that Saint Paul changed ship here in AD 60 on his way to Rome. The building to see is the granary of Hadrian's reign, a long store of eight rooms, still roofed, which the Museum of Lycian Civilisations has taken over for its displays, with finds from digs across Lycia set out by theme. The site has had a reception centre and a marked visitor route since 2015. On the old quay a rebuilt merchant ship shows how wine and olive oil travelled in amphorae, and the murex workshops show what was done with those shells. Between the harbour and the bends of the river lies a bird sanctuary where 149 species have been recorded.
Beyond Demre
Patara, his birthplace and once the capital of the Lycian League, has its own guide on this site. In the hills above Demre, the St Nicholas Ways link the ruins of Byzantine monasteries by footpath and form part of the Lycian Way. Off the Kaş–Demre road, a turning south at the twentieth kilometre leads to Üçağız and Theimiussa, and across the water Simena, the village of Kaleköy facing Kekova island, lies partly under the sea. The climate and visiting details for each of these places are on their own pages.
