Taraklı Tarihi Evleri ve Çarşısı

Taraklı is a small district centre at the south-eastern edge of Sakarya that has carried an Ottoman town fabric into the present, set in a valley surrounded by forest. The municipal brochure places the town about 70 kilometres from the centre of Adapazarı. According to Taraklı Municipality, the houses were built on the slopes of Hıdırlık Hill and Taraklı Hisarı and in the valley between these two hills; the stream coming from the direction of Göynük flows through the middle of the valley. The district centre lies at an average of 444 metres above sea level. The town's name comes from a craft practised for centuries. GoTürkiye, the Ministry's promotion platform, quotes Evliya Çelebi as writing in his Book of Travels that the town was called Taraklı because its people made spoons and combs. In the same lines Evliya Çelebi relates that the surrounding mountains were covered with boxwood and that the combs made here were sent to distant lands. Turkish Wikipedia also mentions other views on the origin of the name and treats this account as a folk explanation. According to GoTürkiye, combs were traditionally made of boxwood, hornbeam, pear and walnut, and the white, hard boxwood was the most favoured. The article on traditional Taraklı houses by Tahsin Turgay and Pınar Erkuş Buyruk of Sakarya University traces the town's history from the Bithynian, Roman, Byzantine and Seljuk periods to the Ottomans. Taraklı joined the Ottoman lands between 1289 and 1293; the two water cisterns on Hisar Hill are said to be much older, dated to between 2000 and 1000 BC. According to the article, the town grew rich in the Ottoman period because it lay on the İstanbul-Ankara road, and its economy declined when this road lost importance and traffic shifted to another route. The authors stress that this stagnation and the very slow growth of the population are among the main reasons why the town's 19th-century domestic architecture has survived intact. In the past the town's economy rested on fruit growing, spoon making, comb making and sericulture, which continued until 1960. Taraklı houses are generally two or three storeys high and built in attached rows. The ground floors have thick stone walls and were used for storage, which is why the lower facades facing the street are largely blind. The upper floors are built in timber frame with mudbrick infill and open up with many windows. On the second floors, triangular or rectangular bay projections jut out over the street, and some houses have triangular pediments above the bays. The roofs are hipped or gabled and covered with traditional Turkish tiles. The exterior walls are finished with straw-tempered plaster and whitewashed in white or pale yellow; wooden mouldings and corner pilasters divide the facade with dark lines. The municipal brochure states that the town has two- and three-century-old houses and mansions, more than 100 of them registered. Walking is the right way to see the town. Taraklı Municipality explains that the historic streets are paved with cobblestones and that resting stones were placed along the streets for people carrying loads. At the centre of the walk is the historic Orhan Gazi Bazaar, where you can see shops selling wooden spoons, combs and handicrafts. The plane tree in Yusuf Bey neighbourhood, said to be seven centuries old, is the symbol of the town, and a historic fountain stands next to it. According to its inscription, the Hüseyin Ağa Fountain in the centre of Taraklı was built of cut stone in 1734-1735. The Hacı Atıf Han on the old Ankara and Baghdad road is a two-storey, U-shaped Ottoman inn that has been restored. The town's historic buildings also include the lead-domed Yunus Paşa Mosque, completed in 1517. At the end of your walk, do not forget to climb Hisar Hill. The municipality notes that this hill was important for the town's defence in earlier times and, with its cisterns, looks like a castle. From the hilltop you can clearly see how the tiled roofs spread across both sides of the valley and how the stream divides the town in two. The best light for photographs is in the morning and late afternoon; at midday the whitewashed facades are too bright. Taraklı joined the international slow city network in 2011 and in 2013 came first in Türkiye in the European Destinations of Excellence (EDEN) competition. Turkish Wikipedia states that the district was removed from the list of slow cities in 2022, while the page of the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism still mentions the title. The town's calm pace and preserved fabric, however, remain in place regardless of the title. To reach Taraklı, follow the road south-east from Geyve towards Göynük; the nearest railway station is at Alifuatpaşa. The Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism states that the town can be visited in every season by asphalt road. For events in the town and visiting conditions of the historic buildings, check the current information on the Taraklı Municipality website.