Laskaris Sarayı (Nymphaion)

The Laskaris Palace is the ruin of a Byzantine palace rising beside the main road from İzmir in the centre of Kemalpaşa. For a long time it was known locally as Kız Kulesi, the Maiden's Tower. The ancient and medieval name of Kemalpaşa was Nymphaion; the town was later called Nif and took its present name after the War of Independence. According to the art historian Semavi Eyice's article published in Belleten in 1961, Nymphaion lay about 30 kilometres east of İzmir on the ancient road linking İzmir to Sardis. This location also explains why the palace was built here. The palace's story begins in 1204. That year the army of the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople, and several small states were founded on Byzantine territory. The strongest of these was the state ruled by the Laskaris dynasty with its centre at Nicaea, today's İznik; it lasted from 1204 to 1261. In this period the emperors did not live in a single palace but moved between different cities according to the season. Nymphaion was their favourite winter residence. It is not known for certain who built the palace. Eyice reports that it is generally thought to have been built by Theodore I Laskaris, the first ruler of the Nicaean state. An article published at Central European University, on the other hand, states that most scholars attribute the building to John III Vatatzes (1222-1254). Nymphaion was the stage for important events. In 1214 a treaty was signed here between Nicaea and the Latin Empire in Constantinople. John III Vatatzes died on 3 November 1254 in a tent set up in the garden of this palace. Theodore II Laskaris and Michael VIII Palaiologos were proclaimed emperors here. On 13 March 1261 the Treaty of Nymphaion was signed between Michael VIII and Genoa, and it secured naval support for the Byzantine recapture of Constantinople that same year. The town passed into Turkish hands in 1315. According to the Byzantine World website, John III was a ruler remembered for his frugality, and the plain, functional design of the palace reflects this approach to government. The building is a rectangular block 25.75 metres long and 11.50 metres wide, running north to south. According to Eyice, there were originally three more storeys above the basement. The basement is built of large cut stones with slightly rounded outer faces, laid without mortar. The stones average between 1.13 and 1.30 metres in length, and Eyice thinks they may have been taken from older buildings. The walls at this level are as much as 2 metres thick and give the lower part of the building the look of a fortress. Narrow, tall, loophole-like openings, four on each long facade, lit and ventilated the basement. On the upper floors the appearance changes completely. The facades are built of alternating bands of brick and roughly dressed stone; four or five courses of brick are followed by a course of stone, giving the facade a striped red and white look. Inside, the windows open in the middle of arched niches. On the wall surfaces you can still follow the zigzag traces of an internal ramp, covered by a brick vault, that connected the floors. The large breach in the middle of the facade facing the plain is thought to mark the place of a former loggia or projection. Scholars compare this plan with the Tekfur Palace in Istanbul, since both are multi-storey residences with massive basements and coloured facades. The ruin has been known for a long time. In the first half of the 19th century Charles Texier briefly described the building and published an engraving of it. In the 1880s Edwin Freshfield studied the building and identified it as the palace of the emperors of Nicaea, and Eyice examined it on site in 1958 and published a detailed plan and description. According to Turkish Wikipedia, restoration work on the building began in December 2011. Today a steel canopy stands over the ruin to protect it from the rain. When you visit, first stand opposite the eastern facade to see the whole building; the contrast between the large stones of the basement and the brick bands of the upper floors is clearest from here. Then walk around the building and look at the loophole openings, the window niches and the traces of the ramp. Since the eastern facade catches the morning sun, the difference in colour between brick and stone looks sharper in the morning hours. Because of conservation work the surroundings of the building may be fenced and the interior may be closed to visitors; you can find out the current situation from the Municipality of Kemalpaşa. Kemalpaşa is reached from İzmir by road in about half an hour. On the hill south of the town there are also the remains of a Byzantine castle. Together with nearby Nif Mountain and the Karabel relief, this stop lets you see thousands of years of Kemalpaşa's past in a single day.