Giresun: Hazelnut Coast and Island of Ares

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1. What is Giresun?
2. How do you get to Giresun?
3. Where should you stay in Giresun?
4. What type of climate does Giresun have?
5. When is the best time to visit Giresun?
6. What is the history of Giresun?
7. What is Giresun famous for?
8. What are the historical places of Giresun?
9. What are the best things to do in Giresun?
10. What are the best places to visit in Giresun?
11. What is the traditional food of Giresun?
12. What should you buy in Giresun?
13. Frequently asked questions about Giresun
14. What do the official records say about Giresun?

What is Giresun?

Giresun is a province on the eastern Black Sea coast and the name of its capital, a port town built around a small rocky peninsula. The old castle sits on top of that peninsula and splits the town in two, with the harbour on one side and the older Zeytinlik quarter on the other. A mile offshore lies Giresun Island, the only island of any size on Türkiye’s eastern Black Sea coast.

Behind the coast the land climbs fast. Within an hour of the sea you are among spruce forest, and above the forest are the yaylas, the summer pastures where families from the coast have taken their animals for generations. Kümbet and Bektaş are the best known. Further south, beyond the main ridge, the province changes character entirely: Şebinkarahisar and Alucra are dry upland towns that face Sivas and central Anatolia rather than the sea.

For most Turks, Giresun means hazelnuts. Hazelnut orchards cover almost every slope between the sea and the forest line, and the round Tombul hazelnut grown here is the variety the province is proudest of.

Places to visit in Giresun

Giresun Island

Giresun Island, the Aretias of the Argonauts: temple and monastery ruins, the…

Giresun Castle

Giresun Castle, attributed to Pharnaces I of Pontus: walls, rock-cut caves, the…

Şebinkarahisar Castle

Şebinkarahisar Castle, Pompey’s Koloneia on a black rock in inland Giresun: its…

Kümbet Plateau

Kümbet Yaylası in Giresun: a 1,640 m summer pasture with spruce forest,…

Bektaş Plateau

Bektaş Yaylası, Giresun’s high pasture at about 2,000 m: Kulakkaya, Melikli Obası,…

How do you get to Giresun?

By air: Ordu-Giresun Airport (OGU) opened in 2015 on land reclaimed from the sea off Gülyalı, about 25 km west of Giresun city centre. Turkish Airlines flies from Istanbul Airport, and AJet and Pegasus fly from Sabiha Gökçen; AJet also flies from Ankara. In summer there are seasonal flights from Germany. Trabzon Airport, roughly 130 km east along the coast, has more connections and is a sensible alternative.

By road: The Black Sea coastal highway runs through the town, linking it with Ordu and Samsun to the west and Trabzon to the east. Intercity coaches come from Istanbul, Ankara and most large cities. Inland, the main road climbs south from the coast over the mountains to Şebinkarahisar and on towards Sivas, passing the turn-offs for the yaylas.

Getting around: Minibuses connect the coastal towns frequently. For the yaylas, Kuşköy and Şebinkarahisar, a car makes things much easier; public transport to the high pastures is thin outside July and August.

Where should you stay in Giresun?

Giresun town is the obvious base: it has hotels in the centre and along the seafront, and from here the island, the castle and the coastal towns of Tirebolu and Görele are all easy day trips. In summer, staying a night or two up on the yaylas is a different experience altogether. Kümbet and Bektaş both have small hotels and guesthouses, and many yayla houses are rented out in July and August. In the south of the province, Şebinkarahisar has a handful of simple hotels for those exploring the castle and the inland valleys.

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What type of climate does Giresun have?

The coast is mild and very wet. Summers are warm and humid rather than hot, winters cool and damp, and rain falls in every month, with the heaviest totals in autumn and winter; the annual average is around 1,300 mm. Giresun is often described as the cloudiest city in Türkiye, with only about 1,030 hours of sunshine a year. Snow on the coast is occasional and short-lived.

The yaylas are another matter. At 1,600–2,000 m, snow can linger into June, and even in August nights are cold enough for a jumper. Şebinkarahisar, south of the mountains, has a continental climate with cold winters and dry summers.

When is the best time to visit Giresun?

Late May to September. Boats to Giresun Island run in the summer season, the yaylas are open and green from June, and July is the month of the highland festivals, when villages gather on the pastures with music and the horon dance. In May the town marks the Aksu Festival with rites on the island and at the shore. Early autumn is hazelnut harvest time, when the orchards are busy and nuts are laid out to dry on every flat surface.

Winter is quiet on the coast and many yayla roads are closed by snow, though the 2002 inventory notes that the Kurttepe slopes at Bektaş are suitable for skiing.

What is the history of Giresun?

Giresun was the Greek city of Kerasous. Xenophon is the first writer to mention it by that name: his Ten Thousand passed along this coast on their way home from Persia around 400 BC. In 183 BC Pharnaces I of Pontus took the town and renamed it Pharnacia, and some ancient sources credit him with settling it with colonists from Kotyora, today’s Ordu.

The town’s most famous connection is with cherries. The Roman writer Pliny reports that Lucullus brought the first cherry trees to Italy from Pontus, and the Latin cerasus, the root of “cherry” and of the Turkish kiraz, is usually linked with Kerasous. An alternative theory derives the name from keras, Greek for horn, after the shape of the peninsula.

The 2002 provincial inventory summarises what followed: after the Romans came the Byzantines, and from the 1200s Giresun was part of the Empire of Trebizond, in which it was the second city. The Ottomans took the coast in 1461 under Mehmed II, and the Greek name gradually became Giresun. In the Tanzimat period the town was a district (kaza) of Trabzon province; its administrative ties shifted between Trabzon, Ordu and Şebinkarahisar until it became a province in its own right in 1923.

Giresun also has a place in the story of the Turkish War of Independence. Topal Osman Ağa, the local commander whose volunteer regiment fought in the war, is buried in a monumental tomb inside Giresun Castle.

What is Giresun famous for?

• Hazelnuts. Giresun is Türkiye’s second-largest hazelnut producer after Ordu, and hazelnuts turn up in everything from breakfast spreads to baklava.
• Cherries and the name Kerasous. The ancient town is traditionally linked with the cherry and its name.
• Giresun Island, with its ancient temple ruins, the Hamza Stone and the spring rites of the Aksu Festival.
• Kuşköy, the “bird village” in Çanakçı district, where people still communicate across valleys in a whistled form of Turkish recognised by UNESCO.
• Yaylas such as Kümbet, Bektaş and Kulakkaya, and the July highland festivals held on them.

What are the historical places of Giresun?

Giresun Castle. On the highest point of the peninsula that divides the town, with walls, palace remains, rock-cut caves and the tomb of Topal Osman Ağa. Its construction is attributed to Pharnaces I of Pontus.

Kufa Well. At the foot of the castle beside the road, a well thought to date from the Pontic period. Its mouth is built of cut stone, 2 m long and 80 cm wide; below the stone lining it widens and reaches a depth of 7–8 m.

Giresun Museum (Gogora Church). An 18th-century church on the coast road, now the city museum, with archaeological finds, stone reliefs, weapons, costumes and coins.

Zeytinlik. The old quarter on the western side of the peninsula, protected as an urban conservation area, with two-storey Ottoman-era timber and stone houses climbing the slope.

Mosques and tombs. The Hacı Hüseyin Mosque was built in 1594 by Çobanoğlu Hacı Hüseyin and rebuilt in 1861; its marble ablution fountain dates from 1901. The Hacı Mikdat Mosque carries three inscriptions, of 1661, 1841 and 1889. The tomb of Seyyid Vakkas in the Kapu quarter honours a 15th-century frontier commander killed in battle in the time of Mehmed II, though the tomb itself was built in the 19th century.

The old Catholic church in Yeni Çınarlar, thought to date from the 18th century, is now a children’s library.

Şebinkarahisar Castle. A great black rock fortress above the town of Şebinkarahisar in the south of the province, with Roman, Byzantine, Mengücek and Ottoman phases. In the same district are the ruins of the Meryem Ana (Virgin Mary) Monastery, the 12th-century Fahrettin Behramşah Mosque, the Kurşunlu Mosque of 1587, and the house where Atatürk stayed, now a museum.

Tirebolu. The coastal town east of Giresun has its own castle on a headland above the harbour.

What are the best things to do in Giresun?

• Take a boat to Giresun Island in summer and walk the path past the temple ruins and the Hamza Stone.
• Climb to the castle at sunset for the view over both harbours and out to the island.
• Spend a night on a yayla. Kümbet, about 50 km south of the city in Dereli district, is the easiest; Bektaş, higher and above the tree line, is the wilder choice. Both host summer festivals.
• Visit Kuşköy in Çanakçı district to hear the whistled language. The village holds its Kuşdili (Bird Language) festival in summer.
• Drive inland to Şebinkarahisar over the mountains, passing Tamdere, known for its mineral water, and look for the walls of the black castle on its rock.
• Join a highland festival. The 2002 inventory lists more than a dozen, including the Kümbet festival on Aymaç hill in July, the Sis Dağı festival on the third Saturday of July, the Bektaş festival in August and the Tirebolu Hazelnut Festival in early September.

What are the best places to visit in Giresun?

Giresun Island is the island of Ares in Greek legend, where the Argonauts are said to have landed. It has temple and monastery ruins, cormorant colonies and the spring rituals of the Aksu Festival.

Giresun Castle crowns the town’s peninsula, with walls, rock-cut caves and the tomb of Topal Osman Ağa, and is the best viewpoint on this stretch of coast.

Şebinkarahisar Castle is the Koloneia of Pompey and the “Black Fortress” of the Byzantines, standing on a basalt rock above an inland town at around 1,360 m.

Kümbet Plateau, at 1,640 m in Dereli district, is Giresun’s most visited yayla, with spruce forest, meadows, the Aymaç viewpoint and a July festival.

Bektaş Plateau, south of Bulancak at around 2,000 m, sits above the tree line near the rock formations of Gelinkaya and Despot Kayası, with neighbouring Kulakkaya and Melikli Obası.

Other spots worth the detour: the Kuzalan waterfalls in Dereli district, Şahin Kayası, a rock outcrop that the provincial culture directorate lists as a “natural map of Türkiye”, and the coastal town of Tirebolu.

What is the traditional food of Giresun?

Giresun cooks like the rest of the eastern Black Sea: corn bread, collard greens, anchovies and plenty of butter. Pancar çorbası, a soup of black cabbage (karalahana) with beans and corn, is the dish the province itself promotes most. In winter hamsi (Black Sea anchovy) is fried, baked with rice or cooked into corn bread. Hazelnuts go into sweets, pastries and breakfast spreads, and the cherry season in early summer is short but intense. On the yaylas, look for fresh butter, cheese and the lamb that the 2002 inventory says was the only meat sold by Kümbet’s butchers.

What should you buy in Giresun?

Hazelnuts in every form: raw, roasted, chocolate-coated or as paste. Shops in the town centre sell the local Tombul variety by the kilo. Mineral water from Tamdere and yayla honey and butter are other good buys, and in early summer, cherries.

Frequently asked questions about Giresun

What do the official records say about Giresun?

Giresun is one of the pearl cities of the Black Sea in the northeast of Anatolia, where green and blue embrace. Some sources date the founding of the city to around 350 BC. After the Romans, the Byzantines ruled Giresun; from the 1200s the period of the Empire of Trebizond began, but this state soon became a province of the Seljuks and then of the Mongols.

Giresun is well suited to tourism thanks to its natural beauty and historic heritage. The tourist season in the region is not as long as in the country’s other tourism areas. The climate of the yaylas, their plant cover and their accessibility bring “yayla tourism” to the fore. The yaylas are also rich in mineral waters and streams; Çaldağ, İnişdibi and Tamdere are famous for their mineral waters. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Giresun Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)