PART 2: Stately Houses of Trabzon

Stately Houses: Akçaabat is located within sight of Trabzon, at the western edge of the broad bay that includes the bigger city. One should not be put off by the drab appearance of the downtown area: the residential districts on the hillside contain one of the best preserved collections of old Pontic houses to be found anywhere along the coast, making the town a veritable open-air museum of traditional Black Sea architecture.
The town's other claims to distinction include the most celebrated horon dancers of the Trabzon region, who may be caught at any of the yayla festivities in the vicinity, such as the Hıdırnebi feast which features a horon round of more than 500 men and women and takes place between July 18 and 22 on a hilltop near the Duzköy turnoff. Another sight is the delightful women's market held every Tuesday which transforms the otherwise nondescript lower town into a brilliant sea of reds and whites, as peştemal-clad peasant women come down from the mountains to sell their fresh produce.
Akçaabat was known in the past as Platana, in reference to the plane trees which the local natives reportedly worshipped in pagan times. The majestic
tree continued to be venerated even in later ages, to the great consternation of Christian and Muslim moralists. Today they still stand in clumps on the hillside, their sublime past forgotten, but their stately shadow a constant presence in the gardens that grace each of the old mansions.
The town consists of three quite distinct hillside sections: Durbinar, Ortamahalle and Gramba. In the past, Muslim Turks inhabited the first while Greeks formed a majority in the latter two. The town was shelled and a large part of it burned down during the Russian occupation of 1916, so that what one can see now is only a tiny fraction of what existed in the past century. Among those buildings destroyed were all but one of the 36 churches mentioned in early sources.
Ortamahalle, on the middle one of the three ridges that rise above the town, provides the best example of what Akçaabat might have looked like a hundred years ago. Its twisting cobblestone streets are too narrow and steep for most cars and only the clamor of children at play echoes in the neighborhood. Women dominate the street scene. Out of a second story window, a housewife asks a neighbor about the market rate for tomatoes. Rows of corn on the cob, to which tradition attributes the power to bring peace and prosperity to the household, hang from the windows shining a bril¬liant yellow in the morning sun. The inhabitants are more than willing to welcome a visitor inside their house and will sometimes make an invitation even before the stroller has summoned the courage to ask for it.
The 40 or so houses in Ortamahalle that retain their original character display certain common traits. All of them face east or north, with panoramic views of the valley and the sea. The upstairs living quarters are arranged around a spacious selamlık, the reception and main living room. Many houses keep the original ornamental woodwork in the interior, representing the last surviving examples
of what once used to be one of the leading crafts of the Black Sea. On the ground floor are the kitchen and service quarters, surrounded by a lusl vegetable garden and shaded by vine arbors and pomegranate trees.
The structural basis of all private buildings is timber, sometimes with round floor built of cut stone. Façade~ are plastered in stucco and painted it pastel colors, leaving only the frarrnc and border beams exposed. Some have impressively colonnaded front porches, complete with elaborate stone capitals. Window frames and pediments reflect a fine grasp of the esthetic principles and proportions of classical architecture. The best examples of these are on the group of house lining Dutlu ("Mulberry") Street. The fine large residence on the narrow street that leads to the church was formerly a Greek schoolhouse. A stately four-storey mansion in the Gramba district on the next hill to the west has a very vivid fresco painted on the facade above its entrance.
The former Church of Archangel Michael, built under Emperor Manuel II in 1332, is now used as a private residence while the associated chapel serves as a barn. Only the battered cupola, rising stubornly above the walls, signals its presence from the outside. In the courtyard one can see some tarnished gravestones scattered about next to piles of bricks and other household items. Inside the church, the mosaics on the floor are still discernible and a big pile of firewood lies unceremoniously in the apse.
The neighborhood mosque of Ortamahalle, dates from the early 19th century and is notable for the extremely fine wood carving of its minber (preacher's pulpit).

 PART 1: Hazelnut Country
PART 2: Stately Houses
PART 3: Texas in Turkey
PART 4: Birds, Castles, Lost Churches
PART 5: Cherrytown
PART 6: Şebinkarahisar
PART 7: Ordu to Unye
PART 8: The Flatlands
PART 9: A Historic Metropolis
PART 10: Paphlagonia
PART 11: The Tail End