The building known as Dündar Evi in Zeytinbagi, the old Trilye, on the Mudanya coast of Bursa, is a nineteenth-century Greek Orthodox church, Hagios Ioannes. It passed into private hands after the Greek population left the region, and its three-storey west front is lived in as a house today. The main entrance is an arched stone doorway, and carved stonework in the walls still shows motifs belonging to Byzantine architecture.
It helps to know how much of Trilye's religious architecture has gone. The town once had seven Greek churches, three monasteries and three ayazmas, or sacred springs; three of the churches are standing today, and one of the ruined ones was restored and serves as the municipal building. The three monasteries, whose history goes back to the Byzantine period, lie outside the town. The first is Hagios Sergios, on the Eskel village road at the edge of town, known to have been founded in the eighth century and later used as a farm; only its walls and its imposing entrance doors, each weighing 200 kilos, survive. The second, about five kilometres out and known locally as the Ayani farm, is Hagios Ioannes Theologos, the Pelekete monastery, founded in 709 and active until 1922; its ruined church and stretches of wall remain. The third is Batheos Rhyakos Soteros, at the spot people call Aya Sotiri, largely collapsed, with some of its buildings used as shelter by the landowner. Reach Zeytinbagi via Mudanya, taking the Mudanya buses from the Emek metro interchange.
Getting there
- Access
- Reach Mudanya by the Emek metro interchange and the Mudanya buses, then go on to the town of Zeytinbağı, also called Trilye.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Bursa as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 5.4 °C in January to 24.6 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (99 mm) and lightest in August (18 mm). Long-term means for 1927-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
