Guide
The İstiklal Yolu — the Road of Independence — was declared a historical national park by presidential decision on 1 November 2018. It covers 235.7 hectares across Çankırı and Kastamonu, and it is not one continuous area: it comes in eleven separate sections, grouped as the Çankırı section (in three parts), the Kastamonu section, the Seydiler section, the Küre section (in five parts) and the İnebolu section.
What is being protected is a supply line. During the War of Independence İnebolu was left as the only door from Anatolia to the outside world, which made the İnebolu-Ankara route decisive: weapons smuggled out of İstanbul, ammunition and logistical material bought from Russia, and many of the people who joined the struggle all moved to Ankara and inland along it. The directorate quotes Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on its importance — 'My eye is on the front, my ear is on İnebolu.'.
Be clear about what survives, because it is not much. Very little of the physical fabric of the war years is left along the 344-kilometre route. Stretches of stone-paved road show through in places, and the bridges and culverts built to keep the old road passable are the structures that have come down to the present; beyond those there are historic hans along the route, some restored, others with their traces gone. Some sections open out into rural landscape, but that landscape and the other heritage features occupy only a small part of the line.
Access, for the first section at least: the starting part lies about 13.5 kilometres north of central Çankırı, beginning at the Aşağı-Yukarı Çavuş village turning off the D100 road and ending at the Kiyisin village turning, 40 kilometres from Çankırı. The directorate's page does not give access details for the other ten sections.
- Designated
- 2.11.2018
