Meydan Square, Kemeraltı Copper Bazaar, the 1461 Bedesten and Trabzon Hasırı

All life in modern Trabzon revolves around Meydan Parkı (Atatürk Alanı), a leafy, tiered public square perched on the upper terrace overlooking the port. Connected by two parallel pedestrian shopping streets, Uzun Sokak ("Long Street") and Kahramanmaraş Caddesi, and dropping down stone staircases north toward the sea into the 500-year-old market lanes of Kemeraltı and the Чarşı Quarter, this compact grid is where locals shop, meet for tea and dine on wood-fired pide.

Walking Downhill from Meydan into the Historic Bazaars

Start under the plane and magnolia trees of Meydan Parkı, then walk north down the stepped bazaar alleys toward the 16th-century İskender Pasha Mosque and the Çarşı Mosque (1839):

• Kemeraltı and the Coppersmiths' Bazaar (Bakırcılar Çarşısı): since the Middle Ages, Trabzon has been the principal outlet for the rich copper mines of nearby Murgul and Gümüşhane. Walk along the narrow stone lanes of Kemeraltı to see master tinsmiths hammering wide, shallow copper kuymak pans, round copper baking trays (sini) and ornate samovars.
• The Trabzon Bedesten (15th Century, The Only Single-Dome Bedesten in Turkey): standing at the heart of the market quarter, this monumental square stone hall was begun by the Genoese/Venetian merchants of Trebizond and completed in the late 1400s under Gülbahar Hatun's endowment. Unlike Ottoman bedestens in Istanbul or Bursa that have multiple small domes, Trabzon's Bedesten is roofed by a single massive central dome supported by four colossal stone elephants'-foot piers, housing artisan shops and a central café.
• Taşhan (1531) and Alaca Han (18th Century): step through the arches next door into two-storey Ottoman courtyard inns where women weave traditional striped orange-black-and-white Keşan and Peştemal cotton wraps on wooden looms.

What is "Trabzon Hasırı" (Woven Gold & Silver Filigree)?

Along Kunduracılar Caddesi and the jewellers' arcade (Kuyumcular Çarşısı), window displays gleam with Trabzon's most famous UNESCO-nominated handicraft: Trabzon Hasırı ("Trabzon Straw-Weave"). Originally invented by Black Sea women who learned to plait flexible mail armour during the medieval era, female master weavers in Trabzon take up to 31 hair-thin threads (0.3 millimetres thick) of pure 22-carat gold or 925-sterling silver and weave them entirely by hand without a loom or solder into supple, ribbon-like bracelets, chokers and cuffs that feel like silk cloth on the wrist.