Bartın

The province

Get to know Bartın

Bartın lies on the Western Black Sea, between Zonguldak and Kastamonu, and most visitors base themselves in Amasra, a port town built on a peninsula between two bays. The capital, Bartın, is inland on the banks of the river of the same name and preserves old wooden houses.

The name Amasra comes from Amástris, the ancient coastal city. The site had Roman and Byzantine phases; the Genoese controlled the port from 1261 and built the castle gates and walls in the 14th and 15th centuries, until the Ottoman conquest in 1460. Inside the castle, the old Byzantine church was converted into a mosque, and a passage leads to a freshwater spring.

In front of the town are two islands, Büyük Ada and the small Tavşan Adası. The Amasra Museum, by the sea, displays finds from land and from the seabed, including a statue of the snake-god Glykon. Fish restaurants line the bays.

The southern part of the province extends into the Küre Mountains National Park, with canyons, caves and forests, shared with Kastamonu. Amasra is often combined with Safranbolu, an Ottoman town in the neighbouring province of Karabük, on the same Western Black Sea itinerary.