{"id":10314,"date":"2016-06-13T13:32:58","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T12:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enormousfish.co.uk\/?p=10314"},"modified":"2016-06-13T13:32:58","modified_gmt":"2016-06-13T12:32:58","slug":"kaynarca-kirklareli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enormousfish.co.uk\/?p=10314","title":{"rendered":"Kaynarca, K\u0131rklareli"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kaynarca may be the world\u2019s friendliest village. I was doing my usual thing of wandering around thinking I could find everything by myself when a local woman realised that I was getting nowhere. She led me to a woman who had just taken some delicious pastries out of the oven. They fed me and took advantage of my inability to speak to tell me about the major points of interest. They also alerted their husbands to give me \u00e7ay and check any wrong turnings I might make.<\/p>\n

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\"Kaynarca

Kaynarca is not subject to water restrictions<\/p><\/div>\n

Pure, fresh water gushes from the rocks above Kaynarca and, even in the driest of seasons, sparkles through the village, powering a flour mill on the way. With such an infallible source of water, the place has been settled for thousands of years. When I went to see the spring, the ground was shaking with enormous explosions. I found a soldier in a lookout post who explained to me that the area to the north was a military zone and the percussive earthquakes were tanks doing manoeuvres with live ammunition. I watched from his eyrie and gained a great fear of tanks and what they can do.<\/p>\n

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\"Water

Water mill in Kaynarca<\/p><\/div>\n

As with so many places in the area, natural caves in the rock have lent themselves to conversion to churches with minimal work. Kaynarca\u2019s rock churches are in the south-west-facing cliff face above the flour mill (41.658008, 27.469674). Any walls that once closed the cave off from the elements are long gone, leaving only the parts that have been carved into the rock. The main nave lies along the line of the cliff with the apse at the north-eastern end. A chapel is dug further into the bedrock. A little to the north is one of the k\u00fcp kayalar\u0131 common in the area \u2013 a sort of storage jar with a round, central hole at the top. It resembles one of the large, earthenware jars used for storing water and keeping it cool in summer.<\/p>\n

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\"Main

Main rock church<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Northern

Northern end of main rock church<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"southern

southern end of rock church<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Chapel

Chapel inside the main rock church<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Top

Top of the storage area beside the rock church<\/p><\/div>\n

The Byzantines also constructed a castle and a decent fortified town. One freestanding church remains (41.657736, 27.471446) near the street that leads south from the main square. This was a typical small cross-in-square late Byzantine church with three apses and a low dome. The southern wall still stands along with the southernmost apse and the lower part of the central, larger, one. Parts of the church can be discerned in the surrounding stone buildings. A column lies beside a farm shed a short distance away. There are the remains of 19th<\/sup> century fresco decoration. The church has undergone the usual 20th<\/sup> century deterioration but not the malicious destruction that went on at Iznik and Enez during and after the War of Independence. The church has been cleaned up a little since the government photographer<\/a> was there and it is no longer used for farm business.<\/p>\n

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\"Intact

Intact wall on the south side<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"View

View from south-east showing surviving apse<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Apse

Apse interior<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Interior

Interior of southern side<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Remnants

Remnants of fresco decoration<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\"Arch

Arch in the south wall<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Column

Column in a nearby yard<\/p><\/div>\n

Kaynarca also has a lot of lovely houses from the Ottoman era. It is still the sort of place where people till the land with a donkey-powered single-bladed plough.<\/p>\n

K\u0131rklareli K\u00fclt\u00fcr Varl\u0131klar\u0131 Envanteri. Kaynarca Kayalar Kilise. Available online at: http:\/\/www.kirklarelienvanteri.gov.tr\/anitlar.php?id=156<\/a> Accessed 9th<\/sup> June 2016<\/p>\n

K\u0131rklareli K\u00fclt\u00fcr Varl\u0131klar\u0131 Envanteri. Kaynarca Kilise Kal\u0131ntas\u0131. Available online at: http:\/\/www.kirklarelienvanteri.gov.tr\/anitlar.php?id=176<\/a> Accessed 9th<\/sup> June 2016<\/p>\n

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Kaynarca may be the world\u2019s friendliest village. I was doing my usual thing of wandering around thinking I could find everything by myself when a local woman realised that I was getting nowhere. She led me to a woman who had just taken some delicious pastries out of the oven. They fed me and took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enormousfish.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enormousfish.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enormousfish.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enormousfish.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enormousfish.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.enormousfish.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10329,"href":"https:\/\/www.enormousfish.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10314\/revisions\/10329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enormousfish.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enormousfish.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enormousfish.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}