A town called army--Ordu and around

The castle consists of what looks like a particularly strung-out wooden house perched precariously on top of a stone-built basement. Not so long ago this extraordinary building was in a parlous state of repair and looked likely to go the way of most of the more interesting buildings in this part of Turkey. Then at the last moment salvation came its way in the shape of enthusiastic Fatsa hoteliers who fancied adding a restaurant to their portfolio. The result is the Haznedaroğlu Konağı, a wonderful place to eat that sits beside a pretty little harbor on the old coast road, a sleepy spur off the fast and furious Karadeniz Otoban (Black Sea Highway).

Not much is known about the history of the castle. The stone substructure probably started life as a real castle with a chapel inside it, possibly built by the Byzantines or maybe even by Genoese traders. The wooden superstructure, however, was only added in the 19th century when a local family called the Haznedaroğlus held sway around here and defied the Ottomans to do their worst by claiming to be the rulers of the rather more important Trabzon, too. Members of the same family were also responsible for the more conventionally lovely wooden house immediately behind the castle, the Haznedaroğlu Ahmet Bey Konağı, dating back to 1764. By 1811 Bolaman Kalesi was apparently serving time as a guesthouse for the so-called “Trabzon Paşa.” Not long afterwards it was visited by the British traveler William Hamilton, who left a vivid description of it.

Of course past importance is no guarantee of continued importance, and towards the end of the 20th century Bolaman Kalesi came close to being demolished to make way for a school. It was finally saved in 2008, when it was rented to the owners of the Yalçın Hotel. Today it's a great place to come for a traditionally Turkish meal in exotically “Ottoman” surrounds -- and the good news is that the prices are very reasonable because they're targeted at the Turkish family-holiday market.

It's easy to visit Bolaman from Ordu by taking a dolmuş to Fatsa and then changing to another that services the coast road. On the way there or back you can also pay a visit to Yason Burnu, a headland jutting out into the sea with a lighthouse at its tip. The approach to the headland is decorated with huge and hardly beautiful representations of the story of Jason, from whom it took its name. The tale of Jason and the Argonauts is one of those which would once have been known to everyone but is perhaps less familiar today. Jason was the son of the king of Thessaly in Greece who had been overthrown by his brother Pelias. When Jason reappeared to recover his birthright, Pelias set him a task he assumed would be impossible to fulfill: to go in search of a Golden Fleece in a legendary place called Colchis (presumed to be in modern Georgia). In pursuit of this goal, Jason assembled a crew made up of such famous heroes as Orpheus and Heracles and set sail up the Bosporus and along the Black Sea in a ship called the Argo. In the course of their adventurous and ultimately successful voyage, the Argonauts will have sailed past Yason Burnu, where a temple to Jason was later erected on a site now covered by a Greek Orthodox church dating back to 1869.

Once upon a time it would have been possible to stand on the headland, gaze out to sea and dream about the story of the Argonauts in a setting that felt suitably remote. Unfortunately the local authorities recently decided that the site would be “improved” by the provision of a string of lampposts that run right out from the church to the lighthouse, thereby completely obliterating its erstwhile natural beauty.

Ordu makes a useful base for exploring this part of the Black Sea coast. It doesn't do perhaps to expect too much of a town named Army (which is what Ordu means in Turkish), but this is an interesting place to get a feel for what life is like in a fast-modernizing part of the country. Ordu is low on specific tourist attractions, the main sight being the fine Paşaoğlu Konağı that houses the town's small museum. Built of stone in 1896, the Paşaoğlu Konağı pays only passing homage to traditional Turkish styles of architecture. Inside, the museum is in sore need of a little TLC (or at least a good dusting), but the upstairs rooms are set up to show the style in which the upper classes were accustomed to live towards the close of the Ottoman era. Its owner had originally fled to Ordu following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.

Ordu's most conspicuous architectural adornment is the huge domed church that stands guard over its western approaches. Until recently this served as a cultural center, although it has now been taken over by Ordu University, which uses it for administrative purposes. Photographs on display around town show the church as it was in its late 19th-century heyday when, in the days before the coast road was built on reclaimed land, it stood right at the water's edge on a platform of solid stone cut with tunnels to allow water flowing down the hillside to find its way safely out to sea.

The streets immediately above the church still contain a number of fine old Ottoman houses, including the stately Sarı Konak (Yellow Mansion), which stands sadly empty for the time being. Two of the houses have been joined together and converted into the Karlıbel İkizevler Hotel with a lovely breakfast terrace overlooking the sea, while another has been converted into the Taşbaşı Butik Otel, beautifully designed by its architect owner. Across town and a bit inland another cluster of old Ottoman houses are currently being given a very belated makeover. With big gardens and sea views, they should have been the city's pride and joy, instead of which they languished unloved until the eleventh hour.

Dolmuşes run up the road in front of the Paşaoğlu Konağı (which the locals call “the Atatürk Evi”) to Boztepe whence it's possible to look back down on Ordu and out over the Black Sea. In theory this is a lovely place to grab a glass of tea and a bite to eat, although current work to landscape the area and equip it with funicular access mean that it's currently little more than a building site. Instead, you can take a turn along pedestrianized Sırrıpaşa Caddesi, a pleasant modern shopping street where, curiously, you could occasionally think yourself in the UK. Here, too, you'll find the cool and trendy Jazz Café just round the corner from a second, redundant 19th-century church that has found new life as the Ordu playhouse.

Sometimes, though, the elephant in the room just has to be acknowledged, and Ordu does have one very big problem, which is the Black Sea Highway that roars its way through town, putting paid to what pleasure there might have been in hanging out in the string of sea-facing cafés lining the western side of town. Want to be guaranteed a good night's sleep here? Then be sure to pack the earplugs.

WHERE TO STAY

Karlıbel İkizevler Hotel. Tel: 0452-225 0081

Taşbaşı Butik Otel. Tel: 0452-223 3530

HOW TO GET THERE

Regular minibuses link Ordu with Ünye and Giresun. To            get to Yason Burnu and Bolaman take a minibus to Perşembe or Fatsa and change.

                                       Paşaoğlu Konağı

                          19th- century church

                                         Bolaman

Haznedaroğlu Konağı Restaurant