Cumalıkızık is a village in the Yıldırım district of

Bursa Province Bursa Province ( tr, ) is a province in Turkey along the Sea of Marmara coast in northwestern Anatolia. It borders Balıkesir to the west, Kütahya to the south, Bilecik and Sakarya to the east, Kocaeli to the northeast and Yalova to the ...

, located 10 kilometers east of the city of Bursa, at the foot of Mount

Uludağ Uludağ (), the ancient Mysian or Bithynian Olympus ( Greek: Όλυμπος), is a mountain in Bursa Province, Turkey, with an elevation of . In Turkish, ''Uludağ'' means "great mountain". In ancient times the range of which it is a part, e ...

. Its history goes back to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

's foundation period. The village is now included within the border of the Yıldırım district as a neighbourhood. Cumalıkızık was founded as a

vakıf A waqf ( ar, وَقْف; ), also known as hubous () or ''mortmain'' property is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitable ...

village. The historical texture of the village has been well protected and the civilian countryside architectural structures of the early Ottoman period are still intact. Because of this, Cumalıkızık has become a popular but still unspoiled center for tourists. A group of similar villages which are placed close together between the foot of mount

and the valleys have been called ''Kızık'' in Turkish. The name stands for one of the twenty-four clans of the Oghuz Turks and the people from the villages also called Kızık. Similar villages, less well preserved, are Değirmenlikızık, Derekızık, and Hamamlıkızık (see Kızık for other places named Kızık in Turkey). Hamamlıkızık was the village of the local baths (hamam), and Cumalıkızık was named because people gathered there on Friday (Cuma, in Turkish) for worship. The Cumalıkızık ethnography museum in the village's square displays historical objects from the village. Every June there is a raspberry festival. The famous Cumalıkızık houses are made out of wood, adobe,

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

stones. Most of them are triplex houses. The windows upstairs are generally latticed and with a

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or ...

. The handles and knockers on the main entry doors are made of

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...

. Cobblestone streets are very narrow with no sidewalks, but a typical medieval gutter in the center for rain and waste water. A mosque, the fountain of 'Zekiye Hatun' next to the mosque and a bath with one dome are original from the

. There is also a ruin of a church built by Byzantines. Cumalıkızık holds 270 historical houses. Some of these houses are in process of restoration and maintenance, and 180 of them are still being used as dwellings. In 1969, the remains of a Byzantine church were unearthed southeast of the village in the foothills of Mt.

. Some architectural works are on display in the Archeological Museum of Bursa. Movies and television programs with historical settings have often been recorded in Cumalıkızık.

References

Villages in Yıldırım District {{Bursa-geo-stub

See also

References