Ä°znik

Template: Infobox city in Turkey / Maintenance / County

Iznik (Greek Νίκαια, Nikaia, latin Nicaea; German Nicaea, Nicaea or Nicaea ) is a city on Lake Iznik ( Turkish Iznik Gölü, Greek Ascania ) and a district of Bursa Province in Turkey.

History

Ancient and Byzantine Nicaea

The city in Asia Minor is in Bithynia, near Constantine Opel and the former Roman imperial residence of Nicomedia. Nikaia is said to have borne the name Elikore or Ankore in the early period. Antigonus I Monophthalmos laid there in a colony Antigoneia. Well to 301 BC Lysimachus founded the city and named it new after his first wife Nicaea. Some time later (282 | 281 BC) came to Nicaea of Bithynia and was BC Roman from 74, as this kingdom became a Roman province.

Importance was Nikaia in late antiquity through the ecumenical councils held there:

  • First Council of Nicaea, 325 ( confession of Nicaea )
  • Second Council of Nicaea ( Seventh Ecumenical Council ), 787

Nicaea was the capital of the 680 first mentioned topic of Opsikion.

The city was conquered in 1077 by the Rum - Seljuks, who launched their first capital here. However, then fell in the year 1097 the city after a siege by the Crusaders in the First Crusade at Byzantium back, which could move the Turkish garrison to surrender to avoid in this way a plundered by the Crusaders. The Crusaders felt this behavior as treason.

1204, after the conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, Nicaea was used by the displaced from Constantinople Opel Byzantines under Emperor Theodore Laskaris I. as a provisional capital. But Nicaea remained the headquarters of the exiled Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Opel. The Empire of Nicaea continued the Byzantine tradition continued until the recapture of Constantinople in 1261.

The Ottoman City

1331, the city fell to the Ottoman Empire.

Under the Ottomans to Iznik, Kütahya developed next to a towering center of ceramic production ( Iznik ware).

Attractions

The ancient city walls well preserved with its gates, some churches and the Roman theater are still visible. There is a large Archaeological Museum. The oldest building is the church of Hagia Sophia from the 4th century. Here, the seventh ecumenical council was held.

Orhan I built it into a mosque, including, inter alia, the remains of frescoes and mosaics, as well as a step-like priests Bank ( synthronon ) in the apse. The mosque was a long time in ruins until it was converted into a museum after the founding of modern Turkey. On the initiative of the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister - and member of the Islamic AKP - Bülent Arınç the Hagia Sophia Museum is used since November 2011 again as a mosque, although the local city council protested.

Traffic

From Istanbul you can reach Iznik fastest over Yalova and Orhangazi, the lake road is scenic.

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