Turkey's best-kept Black Sea secret — a Byzantine and Genoese peninsula with a fishing harbor and castle
Amasra is a small port town on Turkey's Black Sea coast in Bartın province, built on two connected peninsulas forming a double harbor — one of the prettiest and least touristy coastlines in Turkey. The town has a Byzantine and Genoese history visibly layered into its architecture: an inner citadel (Küçük Liman) enclosed by Genoese walls, a Byzantine castle at the promontory's tip, an Orthodox church converted to a mosque (Fatih Camii, 6th century), and fishing boats crowding the harbor quays below. The Black Sea produces kalkan (turbot), fresh anchovy (hamsi), and bonito; Amasra's fish restau…
Amasra was ancient Sesamos, a Greek colony later fortified by the Byzantine Empire as an important Black Sea port. The Genoese took it in 1261 as part of their Black Sea commercial empire and rebuilt the citadel and port walls that still define the town — the Genoese colony lasted until 1460 when the Ottomans under Mehmed the Conqueror absorbed it. The Fatih Camii (now a mosque) was originally a Byzantine church of the 6th century; its original basilica plan and portions of the ancient columns are still visible.