Şirince Village

Charming Ottoman Greek village in the hills above Ephesus. Famous for fruit wines — peach, apple, blackberry, pomegranate — the village has become Turkey's most photogenic wine destination with cobblestone streets and traditional houses.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Read the Stone That Was Built to Say 'Ugly' History · Free

   The village entrance tells a 600-year story in one word — if you know what it used to be called.

   Where: Village entrance at the dolmuş drop-off point, Şirince, 8km east of Selçuk. Walk the first 50 meters of the main street and stop.

   What: This village was called Çirkince — 'ugly' in Turkish — for centuries. Not by accident. The Greeks who founded it, fleeing the ruins of Ephesus in the 15th century when Timurid armies swept through Anatolia, named it ugly deliberately. An Ottoman tax ledger from 1650 records just 18 taxpayers here, all Orthodox Christians. They wanted to stay invisible. 'Ugly' was their camouflage. In 1923 — after the Greek-Turkish War — the Lausanne Convention expelled every Orthodox Christian in Anatolia. The families who had lived here for 500 years, who spoke Turkish, who built these stone houses with their own hands, were classified by religion, not language, and forced to sail for Greece. Muslim refugees from Kavala in northern Greece were settled in their place. Three years later, in 1926, the new governor of İzmir renamed the village Şirince — 'pleasant,' 'charming.' The people who built it and named it 'ugly' to protect it never got to live in the 'pleasant' version.

   How: This is a free meditation. Stand at the entrance. Look at the stone-paved street ascending into the village. Everything you're about to walk through was built by families expelled 100 years ago. Commit that fact before you walk in.

   Backup: This step requires nothing but your awareness. If arriving by car, the entrance parking area gives the same opening view.

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2. 2 Climb the Upper Steps Before the Tour Buses Arrive Adventure · Free

   The tourist track stays on the market street. The real village is one flight of stairs above it.

   Where: From the main market street (the cobblestone artery everyone follows), look for stone steps leading upward to the right — toward the Church of St. John the Baptist. The upper village. GPS: 37.9605, 27.4032.

   What: Most visitors walk the main street, get handed free samples of fruit wine, buy something, leave. They never see the upper quarter — the residential lanes where the houses are 150–200 years old and unchanged, where village cats claim every sunny wall, where the panorama opens south over olive orchards toward Selçuk and the Aegean hills. At the top: the Church of St. John the Baptist (1805, rebuilt after an 1800 earthquake, restored 1832), with faded Byzantine frescoes still on the interior walls and a Virgin Mary wishing well at the entrance. The second church — St. Demetrius — is also up here. It briefly became a mosque after 1923. Then it was abandoned. The roof caved in. A local restored it in 2015. These two buildings are what remains of a community of 1,000+ households. In 1908, every single one was Greek Orthodox.

   How: Take the first dolmuş from Selçuk at 7:30am, arrive by 8:00–8:15am. The upper village before 9am is silent except for roosters and cats. After 10am, tour buses from Kuşadası flood the main street. You'll have the churches and the view entirely to yourself at dawn. Both churches open as cultural sites — no fixed entry fee, though small donations are welcomed.

   Backup: If arriving later in the day, the upper quarter is still significantly quieter than the market street — worth 20 minutes even in the afternoon.

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3. 3 Taste the Wine That Shouldn't Exist — Then Ask for the Real Grape Wine · Price: low

   Şirince's fruit wines are famous and historically fascinating — and they exist because of a 1923 displacement that changed everything about who was allowed to make wine here.

   Where: Kaplankaya Winery in the mid-village (GPS 37.9601, 27.4020), or any of the cobblestone-side cellar shops — Şirince Mahzen AYOS and Baküs Mahzen are both well-regarded.

   What: Here's what nobody explains in the brochures: Şirince's fruit wines exist because of the 1923 exchange. The Greek Orthodox families who made grape wine here for centuries were expelled. The Muslim settlers from Kavala, northern Greece, who took their houses, adapted the winemaking tradition to fruit — pomegranate, peach, blackberry, cherry, melon — over 90 varieties in total. Under the early Republic, grape wine production had social complications for Muslim communities. Fruit fermentation was a workaround that let the tradition survive. One shopkeeper still speaks Greek — learned it from his grandparents, who learned wine-making from the departing Greek community. The tradition didn't just survive the exchange. It traveled across it.

   How: Most wine shops offer free tastings as an enticement to buy. Start with a small peach or pomegranate glass (free or under €1 with purchase). These are genuinely pleasant — sweet, 6–10% alcohol, closer to fresh fruit juice than dry wine. Then ask specifically: 'Üzüm şarabınız var mı?' (Do you have grape wine?) At Kaplankaya, yes — they offer 2 whites and 2 reds from actual grape varietals, served with bread, olive oil, and cheese. Expect €3–6 per glass. Bottles run 100–200 TL.

   Backup: If Kaplankaya is closed, Artemis Restaurant at the village entrance (the big building on the left, housed in the historic school) has the widest selection and the most reliable hours — open daily, full food menu plus wine tasting. Rated #3 restaurant in Şirince.

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4. 4 Find Where Ephesus's Escaped Residents Built Their First Home History · Free

   The village sits on a hillside with unbroken human occupation since the Byzantine period — possibly longer. Your Roman Odyssey just got another layer.

   Where: The orchards and outer edges of the village, accessible on the path that leads beyond the upper churches toward the hillside. Or simply the middle of the village square (37.9600, 27.4017) — look at the hills surrounding you.

   What: When Ephesus was sacked and abandoned in the 15th century, some of its Greek inhabitants didn't go far. They moved 8 kilometers into the hills. Their descendants built what became Şirince. Pottery surveys in 2001–2002 found traces of seven ancient villages and nine farmsteads in the surrounding hills, with occupation dating to Hellenistic times (323–31 BC). Byzantine monastery ruins from the 11th–13th centuries survive in the surrounding orchards. A Hellenistic tower ruin. A possible Roman villa 4km to the southwest. And in Sütini Cave (Panaya Galata) — on the road between Selçuk and Şirince — Byzantine frescoes have survived since the 13th century, when the cave served as a chapel. This village is not just a charming hillside market. It is the last living outpost of ancient Ephesus's human chain — from Hellenistic potters to Byzantine monks to Greek Orthodox winemakers to the Muslim settlers from Kavala who are here today.

   How: Free. Walk slowly through the upper lanes. The stone houses date to the 19th century but the settlement beneath them is far older. If you spot any ancient-looking carved stonework incorporated into house walls or boundary walls (common in Turkish villages), that's likely repurposed Byzantine or Hellenistic material. The village square and upper viewpoint are accessible on foot — follow the main cobblestone street all the way through, then take any upward lane.

   Backup: Even without the Byzantine orchard ruins (unmarked, off-path), the village square itself gives this sense: hills rising on every side, olive groves, the sound of wind. The setting is unchanged since Ephesian escapees first looked up at these slopes.

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5. 5 Eat the Aegean Breakfast the Settlers From Kavala Learned to Make Wine · Price: low · Optional

   The Muslim families from Kavala who arrived in 1923 had to learn Aegean cuisine from scratch. The village breakfast they created is now one of the most celebrated morning spreads in the region.

   Where: Artemis Restaurant and Wine House, at the village entrance on the left as you arrive (GPS 37.9591, 27.3994). Housed in the original historic school building — the same school that served the Greek Orthodox community before 1923.

   What: The settlers from Kavala arrived in 1923 with no knowledge of olives or figs — they cut the trees for firewood. But they adapted. Over generations they absorbed the Aegean culinary tradition the Greeks had built here: olive oil, local cheeses, wild herbs, honey from the hillside hives, pekmez (grape molasses), gözleme (stuffed flatbread on a griddle). The 'serpme kahvaltı' — spread breakfast — you'll find at Artemis today is that synthesis: a table loaded with 15–20 small dishes, every ingredient from within a few kilometers.

   How: Artemis opens mornings and runs through dinner. The 'Serpme Village Breakfast' runs approximately €8–12 per person — a generous spread that works as both breakfast and early lunch. Order olive oil for bread, try the local cheese (usually fresh white Aegean tulum or çökelek), and request any homemade jam. If you've just done the early morning walk through the upper village, this is the reward: sit on the terrace with hill views, with your first glass of fruit wine if you want, and let the village come alive around you.

   Backup: Multiple smaller restaurants and cafes along the main market street offer village breakfasts at similar prices. Any place displaying 'köy kahvaltısı' (village breakfast) on a chalkboard will serve a comparable spread.

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