But that's not to say that Bartın doesn't deserve at least a couple of hours of anyone's time, because, like Safranbolu, it's a town that is still hanging onto many of its Ottoman-era wooden houses.
With 47,000 residents, Bartın is only a small place, which makes it easy to get around. Much of the center has also been pedestrianized so that you can pause to admire the elaborate early 20th-century Karakaşoğlu Hacı Arif Kaptan Şadırvan, which is its prime official attraction, without having to risk being mown down by the traffic. Along the main road you can also pause to inspect a series of late 19th and early 20th-century structures, including the fine stone belediye (municipality) building and an unexpectedly leafy han where men sit drinking tea away from the prying eyes of shoppers.
But really it's the old houses that justify the stopover. The finest are out on the road to Amasra along with a small, unlikely-to-be-open ethnographic museum. A few of the houses are Safranbolu-style half-timbered mansions, but most are simple wooden buildings of the type to be found dotted about other Black Sea towns. Inevitably many are abandoned and slowly crumbling, but quite a few are still lived in and look especially pretty at this time of year with roses tumbling over their balconies. A few in the center have been tarted up and repainted to look like those in Tarsus and Eskişehir, but, as so often, there seems to be a problem coming up with suitable new uses for them.
If you visit Bartın on a Tuesday, there's one other treat in store for you, which is the wonderful undercover market. Men and women pour in from the surrounding villages to sell their produce here, setting up their wooden baskets as makeshift stalls from which to retail a dazzling array of salad greens, buffalo cheeses and cut flowers. Best of all, they come here at this time of year to sell juicy strawberries, filling the air with the sweet scent of ripe fruit.
Realistically though, Bartın will only ever be a place to stop for lunch on the way to Amasra for most people, and as soon as you arrive there, the reasons will be obvious. Amasra is one of those lucky places that seem to have been blessed with everything: twin harbors, Black Sea beaches, the picturesque ruins of a Genoese castle and enough fish restaurants to keep everyone happy. Stir in a decent small museum, a couple of old churches-turned-mosques and boat trips around the harbor to inspect the offshore islands and there's more than enough to while away a week or so here.
Amasra seems to have been settled as long ago as the 15th century B.C. and soon became a colony of the Phoenicians, who called it Semasos. In time it fell to the Greeks and Macedonians, then to the Romans, who renamed it Amastris. The Byzantines first fortified the headland between the two harbors as well as a small island which had been linked to the mainland by the Kemere Bridge since Roman times. The Genoese extended the fortifications in the 14th and 15th centuries, and today it's these fortifications that make the most striking sight, soaring high above the harbors. Stretches of the wall have been restored and a walkway makes it possible to admire the pieces of Roman masonry mixed in with the more mundane stonework. Inevitably, these days, though it also makes it possible to “admire” the work of the taggers who've been up here ahead of you, adding their ugly scrawls to the stones.
The Zindan district tucked up inside the Kale (Castle) is a residential area with some of the houses built up against the walls. Here, too, you will find the tiny apsidal Kilise Mescidi (Church Chapel) and the much larger Fatih Cami, both of which started life as ninth-century Byzantine churches before going on to become mosques after Mehmet II grabbed Amasra for the Ottomans in 1460. It's worth inspecting the stonework above the gates for reminders of the Genoese in the form of coats of arms and Latin inscriptions. However, the most romantic part of the fortified area is the Boztepe quarter that can be reached via the Roman bridge. Follow signs to the Ağlayan Agaç (“Weeping Tree”) Café and you will find yourself gazing out over Tavşan Adası (“Rabbit Island) to what the signs describe as the “never-ending sea.”
Amasra's small museum harbors reminders of the Romans, especially in the form of a group of second century headless statues uncovered during construction work for an industrial estate; apparently buried deliberately, they are thought to be reminders of a period when there was still tension between local Christians and pagans. Even more impressive is a marble torso clad in armor decorated with the images of Romulus and Remus suckling a wolf (a symbol of Rome), and a statue of Athena. In the grounds more reminders of the Genoese lurk amid the mainly Roman and Byzantine statuary. The museum building itself is also worthy of a quick look. When work started on it in 1884, it was intended to house a naval school. Unfortunately the work was not completed when the man responsible for it died, and the stones intended for the second floor were looted. It was restored and turned into a museum in 1982.
As you wander round town, you will spot two statues, one depicting a miner as a reminder that this whole area (and especially nearby Zonguldak) is rich in coal, the second a memorial to local rock phenomenon Bariş Akarsu, who was killed in a car crash two years ago. The statue does his outstanding good looks absolutely no justice at all!
Within reasonable driving distance of İstanbul and Ankara, Amasra is a very busy beach resort, especially over summer holidays and on weekends, when prices are high and you may have trouble finding anywhere to stay. This has had an unfortunate effect on some of the local hoteliers, who charge premium prices for rooms that lack amenities that would be standard in places very much cheaper elsewhere -- check carefully before handing over your money.
One last thing to look out for: As you drive back to Bartın, you might want to pause to climb up the steps leading to the Kuşkaya Yol Anıtı (“Bird Rock Roadside Memorial”), a stone monument to the Roman Gaius Julius Aguilla which dates back to around 54 and features a now headless statue of the deceased beneath an inscription with the sculpture of an eagle perched on a pillar beside it. At this time of year the setting is made particularly beautiful by an outpouring of purple rhododendrons that wrap themselves around the surrounding foliage.
WHERE TO STAY
Hotel Varol, Bartın Tel.: 0 (378) 228 5555
Büyük Liman Hotel, Amasra Tel.: 0 (378) 315 3900
Şahil Otel, Amasra Tel.: 0 (378) 315 2211
HOW TO GET THERE
To get to Amasra you will first have to get a bus from İstanbul or Ankara to Bartın, and then catch an onward dolmuş. The long distance buses end at the new intercity bus terminal, while the dolmuşes leave from the Eski Otogar (Old Bus Terminal) in the town center. With luck you should be able to take a free “servis” bus between the two.
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