By Hasan Gülday
Izmir stands on the site of ancient Smyrna, one of the Seven Churches addressed in the Book of Revelation. Polycarp — bishop of Smyrna, direct student of the Apostle John, and one of the most important figures of the second-century church — was martyred here around 155 AD in a public stadium. The Martyrdom of Polycarp is the oldest surviving Christian martyrdom text outside the New Testament. Ignatius of Antioch passed through Smyrna on his way to execution in Rome around 108 AD, wrote letters from here that have survived nineteen centuries, and was received by Polycarp with great warmth. Irenaeus of Lyon, the great theologian of the second century, was born in Smyrna and heard Polycarp preach as a child.
The city itself is mostly modern — the great fire of 1922 destroyed much of historical Smyrna — but the region around Izmir holds an extraordinary concentration of early Christian sites. Selcuk, just eighty kilometres south, contains within a small radius the ruins of ancient Ephesus, the Basilica of Saint John, the House of the Virgin Mary, and the Cave of the Seven Sleepers. This is, in terms of sheer density of apostolic-era Christian history per square kilometre, one of the most remarkable areas in the world. I was born in central İzmir, which means I live at the centre of all of it.
- Agora Open Air Museum, Izmir (Ancient Smyrna Agora)
The excavated agora of ancient Smyrna, open to visitors in the centre of modern Izmir, is where the public life of this city happened — including, almost certainly, the confrontations between the Christian community and their civic neighbours in the second century. The beautifully preserved two-storey colonnade on the northern side gives a real sense of the scale of Roman Smyrna. Standing here, you can imagine the scene: Polycarp dragged before the proconsul in a nearby building, the crowd demanding his death, the old man refusing every offered compromise. The city was real and large and this is where it happened. - St. Polycarp Catholic Church, Izmir
The Church of St. Polycarp in Izmir is the oldest continuously functioning Latin Catholic church in the city, founded by Franciscan missionaries in the seventeenth century on a site with much older Christian associations. The current building is eighteenth century, with a pleasant Baroque interior and a congregation that has maintained continuous worship through remarkable historical turbulence. The church carries the name of the martyr bishop whose memory has never quite left this city, even as its population and character changed beyond recognition. Worth visiting as a living community rather than a museum. - Ephesus Ancient City (Selcuk, ~80 km south)
The greatest ancient city of Roman Asia Minor. For the Christian traveller, Ephesus offers the world of Saint Paul in extraordinary physical detail: the marble streets he walked, the Curetes Street, the Great Theatre where the silversmiths’ riot of Acts 19 occurred, the commercial agora where Priscilla and Aquila had their workshop. Walking through Ephesus with the New Testament open in your mind is one of the genuinely electrifying experiences available to any traveller in Turkey. I bring groups here almost every week of the season and I am still not tired of it. - Basilica of Saint John (Selcuk)
Built by the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century over the believed tomb of the Apostle John, this was once one of the largest churches in the Byzantine world. Today it is atmospheric ruins on Ayasuluk Hill above Selcuk, with re-erected columns, a clearly readable ground plan, and a marked tomb chamber. The view from the hilltop takes in the entire Ephesus plain. I am based in Selcuk — this is literally the hill above my town — and I find it more moving every time I visit. Most people drive past it on the way to Ephesus. They should not. - House of the Virgin Mary (Meryemana, near Selcuk)
High in the hills above Ephesus, in a forested valley that feels entirely removed from the ancient city below, a small stone house marks what tradition holds is the place where Mary spent her final years under the care of the Apostle John. The tradition was confirmed in location by a group of Lazarist priests in 1891 following the visions of the German mystic Anne Catherine Emmerich. Pope Paul the Sixth visited in 1967, Pope John Paul the Second in 1979 and again in 2006. A place of genuine pilgrimage for Christians and Muslims alike. - Cave of the Seven Sleepers (Selcuk)
On the south side of Mount Pion above Ephesus lies the cave where, according to tradition, seven young men from Ephesus fled during the Decian persecution of 250 AD rather than offer the required sacrifice. The cave subsequently became a major pilgrimage site, and hundreds of Byzantine-era graves were cut into the surrounding rock by Christians who wanted to be buried near the seven sleepers. Excavated in the 1920s, still atmospheric and relatively quiet. Mentioned in the Quran (Surah Al-Kahf), it draws Muslim visitors as well as Christian pilgrims. - Ephesus Museum (Selcuk)
The museum in the centre of Selcuk houses the finds from decades of Ephesus excavations and is essential viewing both before and after the site itself. The highlights for the Christian visitor include the fragments of the Temple of Domitian — the colossal forearm and head from the emperor’s cult statue that John’s community in Ephesus had to navigate — and the broader collection of Roman-era material that contextualises the world of the New Testament churches. The famous Artemis statues also tell their own story about what Christianity replaced here. - Temple of Artemis Ruins (Selcuk)
One column remains of one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. A stork has built a nest on top of it. The Temple of Artemis — a building that employed thousands of people, drew pilgrims from across the Mediterranean, and whose silversmiths’ guild prompted the riot in Acts 19 — is now a marshy field with a single standing column. Coming here after reading about the riots in Acts is a strange experience: the overwhelming power this place once represented, reduced to one column and a stork. Worth seeing precisely because it is so incomplete. - Pergamon / Bergama (Ancient Pergamon, ~100 km north)
One of the Seven Churches of Revelation. The church at Pergamon received the letter with the phrase ‘where Satan’s throne is’ — a reference to the great Altar of Zeus that dominated the city’s acropolis. The ruins of ancient Pergamon are spread across a dramatic hilltop above modern Bergama, with the theatre, the acropolis temples, and the Asclepion all accessible. The Altar of Zeus was removed to Berlin in the nineteenth century, but the foundations remain. The Pergamon Museum in the city holds important finds including early Christian inscriptions. - Izmir Archaeological Museum
The city’s main museum holds a collection of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine material from Smyrna and the wider Izmir region. Sculptural finds, inscriptions, and everyday objects from the period of the Seven Churches give the Christian visitor a vivid sense of the city that Polycarp led and that John’s letter addressed. The museum is in the Kultur Park and is a worthwhile complement to the Agora Open Air Museum nearby.
If you would like to explore the Christian heritage of Izmir and the wider Smyrna region with an experienced guide, get in touch and contact me through toursaroundturkey.com. Every one of these places has layers, and layers are always better with someone who knows where to look.
See you soon, Hasan Gülday
