Atatürk Pavilion (Atatürk Köşkü), Botanical Park and Boztepe Sunset Tea

Rising directly behind the city centre of Trabzon are the cool, pine-scented hills of Boztepe (250m) and Soğuksu (350m). Linking the white Art Nouveau villa of the Atatürk Pavilion, the lush hillside Botanical Park and the open-air samovar tea gardens of Boztepe makes the easiest and most scenic afternoon route inside the city limits (reached in 15 minutes from Meydan Square on Municipal Bus 121 / Köşk minibus or a short taxi ride).

1. The Atatürk Pavilion (Atatürk Köşkü, Soğuksu, 7 km uphill from Meydan)

Set inside a magnificent landscaped forest of Himalayan cedars, magnolias and pines at 350 metres elevation, this gleaming four-storey snow-white summer villa was built between 1890 and 1903 for wealthy Trabzon Greek merchant and banker Konstantin Kabayanidis, who modelled its steep mansard roof, turret and carved stone verandas on the Black Sea summer dachas of Yalta and the Crimea. When Mustafa Kemal Atatürk visited Trabzon in September 1924 and November 1930, he was so enchanted by the villa and its cool mountain air that the Municipality of Trabzon purchased the estate and gifted it to him:

• Historic Significance (June 1937): during his final three-night stay here from 10 to 12 June 1937, Atatürk sat in the ground-floor study and drafted his historic testament bequeathing all his personal properties and estates to the Turkish nation.
• Inside the Villa: walk through the original 1930s Art Nouveau reception rooms, dining hall, bedrooms and the upstairs billiard and map room, then stroll through the hydrangea-filled terraced gardens overlooking the pine valley.

2. Trabzon Botanical Park (Çamoba) and Girls' Monastery (Kızlar Manastırı)

Five minutes downhill from the Atatürk Pavilion along the return road to town sits the 10-hectare Trabzon Botanical Park (Trabzon Botanik Parkı), featuring native Black Sea hazelnut, tea and kiwi orchards, camellia tunnels and panoramic glass tea houses. Continue five minutes further down the hill to the restored 14th-century Panagia Theoskepastos (Kızlar Manastırı / Girls' Monastery), a dramatic two-tier Byzantine nunnery built by Emperor Alexios III around a sacred rock-cut cave chapel overlooking the city.

3. Sunset Samovar Tea on Boztepe Hill & Watching Terrace (Seyir Terası)

Directly above Girls' Monastery on the 250-metre ridge of Boztepe (ancient Mount Minthrion), a modern wooden-and-glass cliffside walking terrace (Boztepe Yürüyüş Platformu) winds through the trees to traditional open-air tea gardens. Join locals ordering a semaver (a copper samovar kept boiling with glowing charcoal inside its central chimney) of Ruby-red eastern Black Sea tea and warm toasted bagels as cargo ships and fishing boats dot the vast horizon below.