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This page was added on 28.03.2022 . It was last updated on 31.03.2022 .
Alaçatı is a district of İzmir province. It is connected to Çeşme district. It is the most popular holiday and tourism center in the Aegean Region. It is one of the main holiday addresses for those who do not like the Mediterranean heat. The sea water of Alaçatı with plenty of wind is both cooler and less salty. This small town, famous for its colorful stone houses and lively streets, is frequented not only by Turkish celebrities but also by windsurfing enthusiasts. You can have a 4-5 day holiday in Alaçatı, which is an ideal tourism center especially for summer holidays; however, 2 days will be enough for you to explore the streets, boutiques, cafes and restaurants of the town. You will not want to leave Alaçatı, Turkey's surfing paradise, for days for its vibrant nightlife, sea, beaches, dynamic tourist population, boutique hotels and shops. If you want to both relieve the tiredness of the year and have fun in the lively crowd, this is one of the best holiday destinations in Turkey.
Alaçatı, which was thought to be called Agrilia in ancient times, has been the pearl of the Aegean since the oldest ages. The first information about Alaçatı appears in documents written in the 1300s. The current name of this town, known as the infantry/cavalry village during the Ottoman period, has evolved over the years as Alaçatı when the Alacaat family settled here. During the period until the Ottoman conquest of Chios in 1566, Alaçatı was one of the important trade centers of Anatolia, which came to the fore with its winemaking under the rule of the Genoese.
In the middle of the 19th century, a malaria epidemic broke out in Alacaat village, the south of which was swampy, and it was decided to open a canal in order to dry the swamp. As a result of the work of the Ottoman architect Hacı Memiş and the efforts of the Greek workers brought to the region from the surrounding area, the swampy area to the south of Alaçatı was liberated and opened to settlement. After it became a healthy settlement, a population of approximately 45 thousand people lived here. Of these, 40 thousand were Greeks and 5 thousand were Turks. Most of the stone houses were built between 1850-1902.
These houses keep warm in winter and cool in summer thanks to the pumice-like cut stones called 'Alaçatı stone'. Especially under the influence of Greek architecture, the houses in Alaçatı were built from local stones with bay windows and two floors. As a result of the Ottoman defeat in the 1912 Balkan War, immigrants fleeing the Balkans began to come to Alaçatı, and the Greeks began to leave the village.
In 1923, an 'exchange agreement' was signed between Turkey and Greece, so during the Balkan War, Albanian and Bosnian immigrants from Kosovo and Bosnia, as well as refugees from Thessaloniki, Kavala, Crete and Kos, came to Alaçatı and settled in the houses abandoned by the Greeks. . The local people, who initially made a living by viticulture, also started tobacco farming after immigrants from Crete, Yugoslavia, Thessaloniki and Macedonia settled here. With the development of agriculture in time, olives, artichokes, anise and citrus fruits have also been grown in the region.
Alaçatı, which is one hour away from İzmir and 15 minutes from Çeşme, is 16 meters above sea level. While the winter population is 8 thousand, the summer population reaches 50 thousand. The fact that Alaçatı is a surfing center is an important source of income for the country and town tourism, in addition to its socio-cultural contribution. Since Alaçatı has been declared a 'historical site', it is forbidden to construct buildings that are not suitable for local architecture. You will admire Alaçatı with its mosque in the market place, its mosaic bazaar and narrow streets full of pepper trees, colorful stone houses, beaches, food and liveliness. You will not want to leave Alaçatı, where you will be impressed by the warmth of its people, and you will even want to buy one of the stone houses and leave the city life and become a local here.