About 45 kilometres north of Kastamonu, right beside the centre of Taşköprü, lies a Roman city that is still largely buried. Its name is Pompeiopolis. Today it is not a walkable archaeological park. It is an ancient provincial capital that is being brought to light step by step through excavation, and whose finds are seen in a museum and in the town itself. For a visitor who arrives with the right expectations, it offers a surprisingly rich story.

A Roman centre north of Taşköprü

According to the Taşköprü District Governorate, Pompeiopolis lies north of Taşköprü. The higher of the city's two hills, Zımbıllı Tepe, was used as the acropolis. The flat land around the two hills formed the main settlement area. The governorate page also lists the city's boundaries. They reached the southern slopes of the Küre Mountains in the north, the northern flanks of Mount Ilgaz in the south, the Halys river and the Osmancık area in the east, and the Pınarbaşı valley in the west. In other words, Pompeiopolis was not just a town but the centre of a broad territory. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Kültür Portalı states that the ancient city lies within the Taşköprü town centre and that the excavation area faces the historic Taşköprü bridge. For this reason, the first stop for a traveller is not a site gate but the town itself.

The city of Pompeius

The name comes from the founder. Pompeiopolis means the city of Pompeius. The Taşköprü governorate source gives the foundation date as 65 to 64 BC. Kültür Portalı says the ancient city was founded in 64 BC by the Romans as the provincial centre of Paphlagonia. A 2002 article in Belleten, the journal of the Turkish Historical Society, by A. Kadir Baran of Ankara University, draws a wider frame around this date. According to the article, Pompeius joined the lands once held by Mithridates to Bithynia, arranged a new province and founded small city states in it. Pompeiopolis is counted among them. The same article notes that the city was probably founded on top of an earlier settlement.

The choice of place was no accident. According to Baran, the city's land was broad and fertile, and it commanded the main road into the interior of Paphlagonia. The governorate page likewise says the city was founded on the east-west passage of the Amnias valley. The article also stresses that cities of this kind stood on the great trade road running from Bithynia to Armenia. So a place that is a quiet district centre today was once a point where roads met.

From capital to the name Sebaste

According to the governorate page, after the death of Deiotaros Philadelphos, the last king of Paphlagonia, the region was attached to the Roman province of Galatia, and in this period Pompeiopolis developed as a Roman city. The cities of Paphlagonia formed a league and chose Pompeiopolis as their meeting place. Most probably for this reason, the city became the capital of Paphlagonia from Antoninus Pius until Gallienus. The same source adds that in the time of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus the city was briefly called Sebaste, and that coins of Sebaste appear only under these two emperors.

The acropolis and the settlement area

Do not expect a theatre or a colonnaded street when you look at the site today. Kültür Portalı describes the settlement as a closed mound. Some of the architectural fragments can be seen in the Taşköprü district, while the finds and mosaics from the excavations can be seen in the Kastamonu Archaeology Museum. These two sentences are the backbone of a visit. A news item published by Kastamonu University lists the acropolis, rock tombs, gate tombs and pithoi among the features connected with the city. A pithos is a large clay vessel that local people in Roman times used to store oil, wine or wheat. Seeing such vessels in the museum or around the dig is the easiest way to understand daily life.

The story of the excavations

The Belleten article describes the rescue excavations carried out on Zımbıllı Tepe and the old road route. It notes that the centre of the city lies in Taşköprü today and that the settlement was dense and Roman in character in the imperial period. According to the Kastamonu University news item, excavation work began in 2006. The same item reports that festivals with dancers and athletes were held in the ancient city about two thousand years ago, and that the city is also known as a city of fairs and festivals. The governorate page says the excavations are still continuing and that the work has reached the Roman period. It is worth remembering that a continuing excavation can say something new every season. For this reason, the safest course is to check the current excavation and visiting situation with Kültür Portalı and the Taşköprü District Governorate.

Mosaics and the late antique house

The governorate page says that excavations by the Kastamonu Museum brought many mosaic floors to light in very good condition. Kültür Portalı likewise points to the Kastamonu Archaeology Museum for the mosaics. The most memorable image connected with the city is the mosaics from the floor of a house on Zımbıllı Tepe. When you look at them in the museum, pay attention to the rhythm of the pattern, the colour transitions and the size of the stone cubes. From close up, each piece looks like a separate decision by a craftsman. From further back, the whole floor reads as one pattern. If you want to take photographs, follow the rules stated by museum staff.

The surroundings of the city

To grasp the meaning of Pompeiopolis, you also need to look around it. According to the governorate page, the bridge that gave Taşköprü its name is a work of the Roman period. The page says it is about 150 metres long and has five arches. Since Kültür Portalı says the excavation area faces this historic bridge, it is possible to take in both in one glance. In the immediate surroundings of Taşköprü there are several rock tombs. To the northwest of the town, near Bademci Village, is a rock tomb with a front without columns and with two lion reliefs. The tomb called Kalekapı in the Kara Dere valley has a front with two columns, and its reliefs show lions, bulls and eagles. The sources do not fully agree on its dating. The governorate page says the tomb is thought to date from the 7th century BC and the reliefs from the 4th century BC. The Belleten article reports that the reliefs are dated to the late 5th century BC. These tombs belong to the Paphlagonian world before the foundation of the city, and show which local heritage the Roman city was built upon. In the Amnias valley there are also old remains thought to belong to the villages of Pompeiopolis.

How to visit

For a visit you need to go from Kastamonu to Taşköprü, a distance of about 45 kilometres. A sensible order is to see the mosaics and excavation finds first in the Kastamonu Archaeology Museum, and then to walk around the town centre of Taşköprü. That way it becomes easier to imagine on site where the pieces you saw in the museum came from. In the town centre, spend time around the Roman bridge, and keep in mind that the excavation area lies across from it. Because excavations are continuing, the area is closed. For opening hours or visiting permission, check the current information on the Kültür Portalı and Taşköprü District Governorate pages. For the museum, learn the current working hours from its official site. For a good plan, half a day for the museum and the town centre, and another half day for the rock tombs nearby, is enough. Early morning in summer and midday light in winter are better for photography.

How to look at this city

On the Taşköprü governorate page, Pompeiopolis is described by experts and archaeologists as a counterpart of Ephesus and Zeugma. This is an expert assessment and not an exact comparison; it expresses the scholarly expectation placed on the city. A realistic view is as follows. The strongest things to see today are not a standing theatre or street but the mosaics, the architectural fragments and the Roman bridge nearby. As the excavations go on, the story of the city will widen. When you travel to Taşköprü, take curiosity and a little patience rather than a map. Combined with the other stops in Kastamonu, this journey completes the picture of the province in the Roman age.

Sources

Kültür Portalı, Pompeipolis Antik Kenti, https://www.kulturportali.gov.tr/turkiye/kastamonu/gezilecekyer/pompeipolis-antk-kent
Taşköprü Kaymakamlığı, Pompeipolis Antik Kenti, https://www.taskopru.gov.tr/pompeipolis-antik-kenti
Kastamonu Üniversitesi, Tarihin Gölgesi Pompeiopolis Antik Kenti, https://gazete.kastamonu.edu.tr/index.php/tarihin-golgesi-pompeiopolis-antik-kenti/
Türk Tarih Kurumu, Belleten, Paphlagonia'daki Pompeiopolis Antik Kenti, https://belleten.gov.tr/tam-metin/3593/tur
Kastamonu Belediyesi, Pompeipolis Antik Kenti, https://www.kastamonu.bel.tr/pompeipolis-antik-kenti/

Pompeiopolis, the Roman City Beneath Taşköprü