Sipahioğlu Konağı
The one house you can enter, with a harem, a selamlık and hand-painted decoration dated 1877.
Tevfik Teker — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Hamdigumus — CC0 · Hamdigumus — CC0 · Selçuk Özkan — CC BY-SA 3.0
Eleven kilometres east of Safranbolu stands a village built against every Anatolian habit: instead of farmhouses scattered among fields, 93 listed buildings line a single main street almost wall to wall, huge timber konaks of two and three storeys, as if a block of old Safranbolu had been lifted whole and set down on a quiet hill. It is said to have been founded by Yörük Turkmen nomads of the Karakeçili and Taraklı tribes who settled here in the 14th and 15th centuries, kept their own administrative status for generations, grew rich and built accordingly. The Ministry of Culture put the whole village under protection in 1997, and Safranbolu people themselves call it the miniature Safranbolu. The heart of the visit is the Sipahioğlu Konağı, the one house open as a museum. Two storeys on a stone base, split in the Ottoman way into a family harem and a guests' selamlık, with hand-painted decoration in curling scrolls dated 1877. There is no ticket office: you knock, or ask a villager, and a family member opens up and takes a small cash fee. A few steps away is the old communal laundry, the çamaşırhane, a stone room with a water channel where the village women once washed together, plus a small mosque, an old cemetery, and women selling stuffed bükme pastry and grape pekmez from their doorways. No public bus comes here. Drive or take a taxi from the old town along the Araç road; it takes roughly 15 to 20 minutes. An hour and a half is plenty, and some visitors are content with an hour. The main street is cobbled and gently sloping, fine for a pushchair for most of its length, though the konak's wooden stairs are steep and narrow. It gets mildly busy on summer weekends, is near-empty on weekdays, and is at its most beautiful under winter snow, provided the road is clear. An honest word: several of the mansions are derelict, and there is nothing to do here beyond walking, looking and sitting down to tea. If you have already been inside Safranbolu's konaks you will find nothing new in the architecture itself; what is new is the stillness, a street of them with no souvenir shops and no coaches. With one day in Safranbolu, spend it in the old town. With two, this is the best way to fill half of the second morning.
The one house you can enter, with a harem, a selamlık and hand-painted decoration dated 1877.
Ninety-three historic buildings shoulder to shoulder and not a souvenir shop among them, something Safranbolu itself no longer offers.
A stone room with a water channel where the village women once gathered to wash; two minutes to see, hard to forget.
Yörük Köyü, Safranbolu–Araç road, Safranbolu, Karabük
With one day, no; the old town is richer and closer. With two, yes, especially with children who tire of bazaars: an hour and a half in a quiet village with barely any traffic, with pastry from the women's doorways, is one of the trip's gentler pleasures, provided you expect one mansion and a street rather than a list of sights.