Bozcaada History and Culture

A small island that holds a whole world of history.

Bozcaada is so old it appears in Homer's Iliad. Below, we tell the story from the beginning to today, in short chapters.

Tenedos: A Story That Begins with a Legend

The island's ancient name is Tenedos. Legend has it that the name comes from Tenes, who was sealed in a chest and cast into the sea over his stepmother's false accusation, and washed up safely on these shores. But the island owes its real fame to Troy. As the story goes, the Greek fleet left the wooden horse on the shore and hid their ships behind this very island to convince the Trojans the war was over. The hiding place of the most famous trick in the history of war is right here.

The Island at the Gate of the Strait

Standing right at the entrance of the Dardanelles, the island punched far above its size: everyone who wanted to pass through the strait met Bozcaada first. Persians, Rome, Byzantium, the Venetians, the island changed hands again and again. In the mid 15th century, in the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror, it joined the Ottoman lands. It briefly fell to Venice once more and was taken back. Every era left its mark, and most of those marks are still standing today.

The Castle: Everyone Laid a Stone

As you approach the island from the harbour, the castle is the first thing you see. Everyone laid a stone here. Nobody knows who built it first, everyone from the Phoenicians to the Genoese and the Venetians used it. It was rebuilt on the surviving ruins in 1455 in the reign of Mehmed the Conqueror, then repaired extensively under Köprülü Mehmed Pasha in 1657 and Mahmud II in 1815. Once separated from the island by a water filled moat, the castle is entered today over a fixed bridge. The interior is open to visitors, details are on our what to see page.

Two Quarters, Five Centuries of Neighbourliness

You still feel this past today. Greeks and Turks have lived side by side here for five hundred years. On one side, the colourful doors and wide stone streets of the Greek Quarter, on the other, the narrow winding lanes of the Turkish Quarter. Officially they are called Cumhuriyet and Alaybey. Two different ways of building a home, shoulder to shoulder on the same small island.

In the 1923 population exchange, the Greeks of Bozcaada and Gökçeada were exempted under the Treaty of Lausanne. Most of the Greek population emigrated after the 1960s, but the community lives on. The Church of the Virgin Mary reopened for worship last year after a major restoration, Easter is celebrated on the island once again, and the Ayazma Fair in late July remains a day when the two cultures share the same table.

The Island of Vineyards

And then there are the vineyards. Grapes cover the island. Wine has been made here since antiquity, and the fame of Tenedos wine once crossed the Aegean by ship. Today a third of the island is vineyard and four native grapes are still in production. We cover the present day of this tradition on our Food and Wine page, and the Grape Harvest Festival in August is the most festive week of the calendar.

Bozcaada Today

The entire island is a protected site. There is no ugly concrete sprawl, everything keeps its old fabric. The stone houses, the cobbled lanes, the bay windows all stand as they were. Walking here, you feel time slow down. And that is what makes the island what it is: history here is not behind glass, it is out in the street.

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