Alaçatı Walking Tour - Daytime

Alaçatı is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Çeşme, İzmir Province, Turkey. Its population is 10,386 (2022). Before the 2013 reorganisation, it was a town (belde). It is on the Western coast of Turkey, often noted for its architecture, vineyards, windmills, and sea.

Alaçatı is one of the most traditional towns in Turkey, it is famed for its former Greek village with stone houses, narrow streets, boutique hotels and restaurants with tables on the streets. The area is also home to the Alaçatı yacht marina and the famous Port Alaçatı development, created by the French architect Francois Spoerry and his son, Yves Spoerry.

Etymology
There are various theories about the formation of the name of Alaçatı. Some sources claim that the name of the city formulated in the plural number and is considered to have its origin from the ancient Greek word ἅλς (als) - ἅλας (alas), "salt", plural ἅλατα (alata), "salts", in the Demotic Greek αλάτι (alati), "salt", plural αλάτια (alatia), "salts", which enunciate as Alatzata and Alatsata either due to Turkish alteration of the language (e.g. in Turkish, the word “kalderim” (meaning cobbled road - originated from the Greek kallidromon) or according to a local Greek dialect. During the Ottoman Empire, the word is referred to as the adjective «the alatsatikos» which was a tax collected on salt. The older pronunciation and spelling of the name «Alatzata» seems to disappear at the end of the 19th century. The phoneme –tz then turned to the refined and elegant form of the Greek phoneme -ts. Other resources claim, however, the name Alaca At (Red Horse in Turkish) used for the whole area.[citation needed] Their claim is based on a story, that the ruler of Alaçatı had a red horse to ride. When riding the horse, bystanders would refer to him as "Alacaatlı (the man with the red horse)", in time the name was somehow changed to Alaçatı.[citation needed] Some resources claim that the name "Ala çatı" (Iridescent Roof) derives from strong winds causing laundries to fly away and land on neighbour houses.

According to the statistics of the High Commission of Smyrna in May 1914, the number of Greek inhabitants of Alatsata that were forced by the Turks to be expatriated were 14.000.[8] Muslim refugees from Greece were settled here, and ever since then the name Alaçatı has been adopted both for the town and the harbour area. The harbour area was called 'Agrilia' (Greek: Αγριλιά, "wild olive tree"), and was the export port of İzmir until World War II. After the war, the harbour's use declined, and the bay, in which the harbour was, is now popular among windsurfers. The town also hosts a lap of the world tournament of windsurfing, famously called PWA.

History
Alaçatı became an Ottoman town in the 14th century, according to some; in the 15th century, according to others.[citation needed] Regardless of the date, Alaçatı was originally settled or founded by Greeks in the 17th century. The Muslim population was only 132 out of a population of 13,845 in 1895. After the defeat of the Ottomans in the Balkan Wars, Ottoman Muslims moved to the western coast of Anatolia, to accommodate them, the Ottomans implemented a programme of expulsions and forcible migrations of Greeks of the Aegean region and eastern Thrace, whose presence in these areas was also deemed a threat to national security. Some of the Greek population who survived the forced removal returned in 1919 during Greek administration of Smyrna (1919-1922) when the Hellenic Army occupied the region of Izmir. However, following Greece's defeat in the Greco-Turkish War, the majority fled from the Greek genocide, the few remaining were killed or fled during the Burning of Smyrna. The forced emigration of the Greek population, already at an advanced stage, was transformed into a population exchange backed by questionable international legal guarantees.

Under the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 and according to the implementation of the compulsory exchange of populations, Muslims who fled Crete, Thrace, Macedonia and Dodecanese settled in Alatsata city in the houses abandoned by the Greeks. Most of these houses still remain in Alaçatı as an attraction for people to see.

Architecture
Typically, enclosed cumba balconies are painted by lilac or pale blue colours.
Alaçatı has stone houses with coloured windows and narrow streets with pavements. The centre of Alaçatı has houses from the Ottoman period; the ones that belonged to Ottoman Greeks are distinct, by having an additional enclosed balcony area, alcove window or cumba in Turkish. Typically, enclosed cumba balconies are painted by lilac or pale blue colors. The town was declared as a historical site in 2005; the buildings are well protected. The newly built houses refer to the past architectural principles of the Ottoman houses of the agora of Alaçatı.