Kütahya (Turkish pronunciation:[cyˈtahja]) is a city in westernTurkey which lies on thePorsuk River, at 969 metres above sea level. It is the seat ofKütahya Province andKütahya District.[3] Its population is 263,863 (2022).[2] The region of Kütahya has large areas of gentle slopes with agricultural land culminating in high mountain ridges to the north and west.
Although the exact date of its establishment cannot be determined, its history dates back to 3000 BC. According to old sources, the ancient name of Kütahya was Kotiaeon, Cotiaeum and Koti.
In the Iron Age the province was settled by thePhrygians. The Phrygians, who came to Anatolia in 1200 BC, entered the lands of theHittite Empire and organized as a state. In 676 BC, theCimmerians defeated the Phrygian King Midas III and dominated the area and its surroundings. During the time whenAlyattes was the King ofLydia, the Cimmerian rule was replaced by the Lydian rule.
In 334 BC,Alexander the Great, who defeated the Persians near theBiga River, established dominance in the region. With the death of Alexander in 323 BC, Kütahya and its region passed to one of his commanders,Antigonos. In 133 BC, Cotyaion/Kotyaion (Κοτύαιον) came underRoman rule and was called Cotyaeum.
The ancient world knew present-day Kütahya as Cotyaeum (Κοτύαιον). It became part of theRoman province ofPhrygia Salutaris,[4] but in about 820 became the capital of the new province of Phrygia Salutaris III.
The most famous event of Christian Church history in Kütahya is the martyrdom ofMenas the Great Martyr and Wonderworker. The future saint Menas was born in 285 AD into a Christian family in Niceous, Egypt. He became a professional soldier in theRoman Legion at age 15 and served in Phrygia during the reign of EmperorDiocletian (284-305 AD). In 298, the Roman emperor published an edict ordering everyone to worship and sacrifice the Roman gods and the Legions were ordered to capture and persecute Christians. As a Christian, Menas could not sacrifice to the Roman gods or persecute his fellow Christians, so he threw down his soldiers belt (a symbol of rank) and left the military after three years of service. Menas went to a deserted mountain as a hermit to devote his whole life to Christ. In 304 C.E. after 5 years of desert solitude, Menas came Cotyaeum during a feast to Roman god and declared that he was Christian before Pyrrhus, thePrefect of Phrygia. The Prefect imprisoned Menas and ordered his torture and beheading on a rock outside the city that is still remembered in Kütahya today.
In 1071 Cotyaeum (or Kotyaion) briefly fell to theSeljuk Turks, later being recaptured by the Byzantines. It was again captured by the Seljuks in the 1180’s and changed hands several more times, being captured by theGermiyanids,Timur-Leng (Tamerlane), until finally being incorporated into theOttoman Empire in 1428.[10] It was initially the center ofAnatolia Eyalet until 1827, when theHüdavendigâr Eyalet was formed. It was later center of the sancak within the borders of theHüdavendigâr Vilayet in 1867. Troops ofIbrahim Pasha of Egypt briefly occupied it in 1833.
During this time a large number of ChristianArmenians settled in Kotyaion/Kütahya, where they came to dominate the tile-making and ceramic-ware production.[11] Kütahya emerged as a renowned center for the Ottoman ceramic industry, producing tiles andfaience for mosques, churches, and official buildings in places all over theMiddle East.[12] The craft industry ofArmenian ceramics in Jerusalem was started by Armenian ceramicistDavid Ohannessian [he], master of a Kütahya workshop between 1907 and 1915, who was deported from Kütahya in early 1916, during theArmenian genocide, and rediscovered, living as a refugee in Aleppo in 1918, by SirMark Sykes, a former patron. Sykes connected him to the new military governor of Jerusalem,Sir Ronald Storrs, and arranged for Ohannessian to travel to Jerusalem to participate in a planned British restoration of theDome of the Rock.[13]
Today two families originating from Kutahya, the Balian and Karakashian families continue the tradition of Armenian Ceramics in East Jerusalem. The Balian studio is known under the name theArmenian Ceramics -Balian and that is where the lateMarie Balian transformed the art of ceramic tile murals to a much higher level of art than imagined.[citation needed]
The fortifications of the city and its environs, which were vital to the security and economic prosperity of the region, were built and rebuilt from antiquity through the Ottoman period.[14] However, the dates assigned to the many periods of construction and the assessment of the military architecture are open to various interpretations.[15]
At the end of the nineteenth century the population of thekaza of Kütahya numbered 120,333, of which 4,050 wereGreeks, 2,533Armenians, 754Catholics, and the remainderTurks and other Muslim ethnicities.[16] Kütahya and the district itself were spared the ravages of theArmenian genocide of 1915, when the Ottoman governor, Faruk Ali Bey, went to extreme lengths to protect the Armenian population from being uprooted and sent away on death marches.[16] However, Faruk Ali Bey was removed from office in March 1916, and the city's Armenian community suffered in the aftermath under the rule of his successor, Ahmet Mufti Bey. Kütahya was occupied by theGreek Army on 17 July 1921 afterBattle of Kütahya–Eskişehir during theTurkish War of Independence and was then captured in ruins by theTurkish Army after theBattle of Dumlupınar during theGreat Offensive on 30 August 1922.[17][18]
Kütahya ceramics, covered bowl, second half of the 18th centuryTemple of Zeus in ancient city ofAizanoi.Tourism is an important economic of the city.House ofEvliya Çelebi
The industries of Kütahya have long traditions, going back to ancient times.
Kütahya is famous for itskiln products, such astiles andpottery, which are glazed and multicoloured.[19] Modern industries aresugar refining,tanning,nitrate processing and different products ofmeerschaum, which is extracted nearby.
In the Ottoman period, Kütahya was a major cotton production center of the empire.[20] Modern local agricultural industry producescereals,fruits andsugar beet. In additionstock raising is of much importance. Not far from Kütahya there are importantmines extractinglignite.
Kütahya is linked by rail and road withBalıkesir 250 km (155 mi) to the west, İstanbul 360km to the northwest,Konya 450 km (280 mi) to the southeast,Eskişehir 70 km (43 mi) northeast andAnkara 300 km (186 mi) east.
A smallewer, now in theBritish Museum, gave its name to a category of similar blue and whitefritware pottery known as 'Abraham of Kütahya ware'. It has an inscription inArmenian script under the glaze on its base stating that it commemorated Abraham of Kütahya with a date of 1510.[21] In 1957 Arthur Lane published an influential article in which he reviewed the history of pottery production in the region and proposed that 'Abraham of Kütahya' ware was produced from 1490 until around 1525, 'Damascus' and 'Golden Horn' ware were produced from 1525 until 1555 and 'Rhodian' ware from around 1555 until the demise of theİznik pottery industry at the beginning of the 18th century. This chronology has been generally accepted.[22]
The highest recorded temperature was 41.4 °C (106.5 °F) on 15 August 2023, while the lowest recorded temperature was −28.1 °C (−18.6 °F) on 29 December 1948.[23]
Climate data for Kütahya (1991–2020, extremes 1929–2023)
Kütahya's old neighbourhoods are dominated by traditional Ottoman houses made of wood andstucco, some of the best examples being found along Germiyan Caddesi. It has many historical mosques such as Ulu Camii, Cinili Camii, Balikli Camii and Donenler Camii. The Şengül Hamamı is a famous Turkish bath located in the city
The town preserves some ancient ruins, a Byzantine castle and church. During late centuries Kütahya has been renowned for its Turkish earthenware, of which fine specimens may be seen at the national capital. The Kütahya Museum has a fine collection of arts and cultural artifacts from the area, the house whereHungarian statesmanLajos Kossuth lived in exile between 1850 and 1851 is preserved as a museum.[1]Archived 2011-07-21 at theWayback Machine
The main bus station has bus links to most major Turkish cities.Zafer Airport is active. Kütahya is also the main railroad endpoint for theAegean region.
^Hovannisian, Richard G. and Armen Manuk-Khaloyan, "The Armenian Communities of Asia Minor," inArmenian Communities of Asia Minor, ed. Richard G. Hovannisian. UCLA Armenian History and Culture Series: Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces, 13. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, 2014, pp. 32-34.
^See Dickran Kouymjian, "The Role of Armenian Potters of Kutahia in the Ottoman Ceramic Industry," inArmenian Communities of Asia Minor, pp. 107-30.
^Moughalian, Sato.Feast of Ashes: The Life and Art of David Ohannessian. Stanford, CA: Redwood Press, 2019.
^Foss, Clive (1985).Survey of the Medieval Castles of Anatolia: Kütahya. Oxford, U.K.: BAR. pp. 12ff.
^Edwards, Robert W., “Medieval Castles of Anatolia: Kütahya,”Speculum 62 (1987): pp. 675-680.
^abHovannisian and Manuk-Khaloyan, "The Armenian Communities of Asia Minor," p. 34.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Cotiæum".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
.jpg)
.JPG)
