Konak Square

About this place

A 25-metre marble clock tower, put up in 1901 to mark twenty-five years of Sultan Abdülhamid II on the throne, still stands in the middle of Konak Square with the Gulf of İzmir behind it, and it is quite literally the city's emblem: it appears on the seal of the Metropolitan Municipality. The Levantine French architect Raymond Charles Péré gave it four fountains at the base, four clock faces at the top and a lavish late-Ottoman skin; it lost its top storey in the earthquakes of 1928 and 1974, was rebuilt each time, and had a full restoration in 2019. You cannot go inside. Standing under it and photographing it from the angle that puts the sea behind is the whole ritual, and it is enough. A few steps away sits Konak Mosque, which locals call the Yalı Mosque: a tiny octagonal building of 1755, commissioned by the wife of the city's governor and clad in blue Kütahya tiles. It has a single door, and it holds only a few dozen worshippers, but it is the loveliest interior on the square and a natural place for the midday or afternoon prayer before the bazaar. The square takes its name from the Ottoman governor's mansion on its edge, and its most political corner is the monument to Hasan Tahsin, the journalist credited with firing the first shot at the Greek troops landing on the quay in May 1919, who became a national symbol every Turkish schoolchild knows. The square itself is an open plaza with no fence, no ticket and no hours. Pigeons wheel between the simit carts and corn sellers, and in summer families sit on the lawns late into the night. It is also the city's transport hub: the Konak ferry pier is right on the water, with boats crossing to Karşıyaka and Bostanlı in around twenty minutes, and the Konak metro station, the tram and the main bus stops all meet here. Kemeraltı Bazaar begins at the south-east corner, and a five-minute walk north brings you to the Ottoman customs warehouse completed in 1890 and attributed to Gustave Eiffel's firm, now the Konak Pier mall with restaurants on the water. Treat it as a starting point rather than a destination: half an hour covers the tower, the mosque and the pier, then walk into the bazaar or take the ferry. In August there is no shade here until sunset and the marble throws the heat back at you, so make it the last stop of the day, when the families come down to the waterfront. The ground is flat and pushchair-friendly; the only climb is the hill behind, up to the Archaeological Museum.