Kütahya: Tiles, Thermal Springs and the Temple of Zeus

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

What is Kütahya?

Kütahya is a province in western Türkiye, on the high ground where Central Anatolia meets the inner Aegean, and also the name of its capital, a city of about 260,000 people at about 970 m on the Porsuk River. For six centuries it has been a centre of glazed tiles and pottery, and its blue-and-white and polychrome ceramics are still painted by hand in workshops around the city.

Above the old town rises Kütahya Castle, and below it lie the timber houses of Germiyan Street, Seljuk and Germiyanid mosques and madrasas, and the Kütahya Tile Museum. An hour’s drive southwest is Aizanoi, at Çavdarhisar, one of the best-preserved Roman cities in inland Anatolia, with an almost intact Temple of Zeus.

The 2002 provincial inventory sums up the province’s case for visitors: its growing industry, rich underground and surface resources, university, thermal springs, handicrafts and history. It adds a few things not to forget: that Aizanoi is held to have had the world’s first stock exchange, that Kütahya has one of the very few tile museums anywhere, and that the 17th-century traveller Evliya Çelebi was from Kütahya.

Places to visit in Kütahya

Aizanoi

Aizanoi ancient city at Çavdarhisar, Kütahya: the Temple of Zeus, theatre-stadium, Diocletian’s…

Kütahya Tile Museum

Kütahya Tile Museum: tiles and ceramics in the 1411–1412 imaret of the…

Kütahya Castle

Kütahya Castle on Hisar Tepesi: a 70-tower fortress with Roman, Byzantine, Germiyanid…

Germiyan Street

Germiyan Street in Kütahya: 18th-century timber houses with projecting upper floors, the…

How do you get to Kütahya?

By air: Zafer Airport (KZR), near Altıntaş, lies about 41 km south-southeast of Kütahya and also serves Afyonkarahisar and Uşak. Turkish Airlines flies there from Istanbul, and there are seasonal flights from Düsseldorf. Most international visitors connect in Istanbul.

By rail: Kütahya is on the railway between Eskişehir and the Aegean. Regional trains run from Eskişehir, where you can connect to the high-speed (YHT) line from Istanbul and Ankara, and the İzmir Blue Train between Ankara and İzmir also serves the line.

By road: Coaches link Kütahya with Istanbul (about 360 km), Ankara (about 300 km), Eskişehir, Bursa, İzmir and Afyonkarahisar. For Aizanoi, the thermal towns and the Phrygian valleys, a car is the most practical option.

Where should you stay in Kütahya?

Stay in the city centre to be within walking distance of the Tile Museum, Germiyan Street and the climb to the castle. Many Turkish visitors instead stay at the thermal resorts around the province, at Ilıca Harlek, Yoncalı, Simav, Gediz or Emet, and treat the city as a day trip. For Aizanoi, Kütahya is the natural base.

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What type of climate does Kütahya have?

Kütahya has warm, dry summers and chilly, wet winters with frequent snow. Its height of almost 1,000 m keeps summer nights cool, though heat waves are possible: the record high is 41.4°C, set in August 2023. Winter cold can be severe, and the province receives about 550 mm of rain and snow a year.

When is the best time to visit Kütahya?

May, June and September are best: mild enough to climb to the castle and walk around Aizanoi, which has little shade. Spring wild flowers make the drive to Aizanoi and the Phrygian valleys especially attractive. July and August are warm by day and pleasant in the evenings. Winter is the season for the thermal resorts, but snow can make rural roads difficult.

What is the history of Kütahya?

The 2002 inventory describes Kütahya as a place where civilisations and cultures founded around 3000 BC blended together, and names the Phrygians as its first hosts in antiquity. Under Rome, from 133 BC, the city was known as Cotyaeum (Kotiaeion), and it later became a bishopric. Saint Menas, the Egyptian soldier-martyr, is said to have been martyred here in 304.

In the 14th century Kütahya was the capital of the Germiyanids, a Turkish principality that controlled much of western Anatolia. The Germiyanid rulers left mosques, madrasas and an imaret in the city, including the complex of Yakup II, part of which is now the Tile Museum. The Ottomans took Kütahya permanently in 1428, after a brief occupation by Timur, and it served as the seat of the province of Anatolia until 1827.

Kütahya became one of the great ceramic centres of the Ottoman Empire, producing tiles and faience for buildings across the Middle East. In the 19th century Armenian potters dominated much of the production.

In 1850–1851 the Hungarian revolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth lived in exile in a house in the city with his family and a group of refugees; he drafted a constitutional proposal for Hungary there, and the house has been a museum since 1982. During the War of Independence Greek forces occupied Kütahya in 1921; it was retaken in 1922, and the decisive battle of the Great Offensive was fought at Dumlupınar, in the south of the province, ending on 30 August 1922, now Victory Day in Türkiye.

What is Kütahya famous for?

• Tiles and ceramics. Hand-painted Kütahya çini on plates, vases, panels and whole building façades.
• Aizanoi, with its Temple of Zeus, combined theatre and stadium, and the round macellum inscribed with Diocletian’s price edict.
• Evliya Çelebi, the 17th-century travel writer, whose family came from Kütahya.
• Thermal springs at Ilıca Harlek, Yoncalı, Gediz, Simav, Emet and Tavşanlı.
• Dumlupınar, site of the final battle of the Great Offensive on 30 August 1922.

What are the historical places of Kütahya?

Aizanoi (Çavdarhisar). The inventory describes Aizanoi as the main settlement of the Aizanitis, a people attached to Phrygia, built on both banks of the ancient Penkalas river (today’s Koca Çay). It changed hands between the kingdoms of Pergamon and Bithynia, came under Roman rule in 133 BC, was a bishopric in early Byzantine times and lost its importance in the 7th century.

Kütahya Castle. On Hisar Tepesi, settled from antiquity to the present, the castle has 70 towers and three parts: the upper citadel (Kale-i Bala), the lesser castle (Kale-i Sagir) and the outer walls.

The Great Mosque (Ulu Camii). The inventory calls it the finest and largest mosque in Kütahya. Begun under Bayezid I in the late 14th century and finished in the early 15th, it was repaired by Mimar Sinan during Süleyman the Magnificent’s Rhodes campaign. Look for the four-columned müezzin gallery and the panel depicting the Kaaba to the right of the mihrab.

The Vacidiye Madrasa. Next to the Great Mosque, built in 1314 by Umur bin Savcı of the Germiyan dynasty, it houses the Kütahya Archaeological Museum.

The Dönenler Mosque. A 14th-century building founded by Ergun Çelebi, a grandson of Mevlana, as Kütahya’s first Mevlevi lodge and one of the earliest anywhere. The semahane, now used as a mosque, and dervish cells survive.

The Old Government House. Begun in 1908 and finished in 1911, it is one of the finest examples of late Ottoman civic architecture. The chimneys in the governor’s room are tiled so that a crescent and star appear in the centre, and the building contains a fully tiled masjid.

Germiyan Street and the Kossuth House. Rows of 18th-century timber houses in the Pirler quarter, and, on Macar Sokak in the Börekçiler quarter, the house where Lajos Kossuth lived in 1850–1851.

What are the best things to do in Kütahya?

Look for the tile workshops. Workshops around the city still paint and fire çini by hand, and their shops are the best place to see the range of patterns.

Spend a day at Aizanoi. Walk from the Temple of Zeus to the theatre-stadium, the macellum and the Roman bridges, which are still in use.

Climb to the castle at sunset for the view over the old town and the plain.

Soak in the hot springs. The inventory lists spring waters from about 25°C at Ilıca Harlek to between 65°C and 98°C at Gediz Ilıcasu and 70–90°C at Simav Eynal.

Get into the mountains. Murat Dağı, south of the province near Gediz, rises to 2,312 m and, according to the inventory, is the highest mountain in inner Aegean; it is covered with chestnut, oak and pine forest. Gölcük Yaylası near Simav, at 1,450 m in pine forest, and the forests around Domaniç are other summer escapes. Closer to town, Çamlıca, 5 km west, is a forest picnic area, and the Enne and Porsuk reservoirs are popular for fishing.

Visit the old trees. At Kumarı village, 7 km south of the city, three protected chestnut trees still bear fruit; the largest, with a girth of about 8 m and a height of almost 20 m, is said to be 1,000 years old. In Domaniç, the Mızık pine is associated by tradition with the cradles of Osman Gazi and Orhan Gazi.

Time a festival. Events in the inventory include the Pazarlar cherry and sour-cherry festival in June, cultural festivals in July, and the commemoration of the Battle of Dumlupınar on 26–30 August. In Domaniç, early September brings festivities in memory of Hayme Ana, the Kayı matriarch revered in Ottoman tradition.

What are the best places to visit in Kütahya?

Aizanoi is the province’s great Roman site, on UNESCO’s Tentative List since 2012, with one of the best-preserved Roman temples in Anatolia.

The Kütahya Tile Museum occupies the imaret of the Germiyanid ruler Yakup II, built in 1411–1412, and traces Kütahya’s ceramic tradition.

Kütahya Castle crowns the hill above the old town, with walls and towers from Byzantine to Ottoman times.

Germiyan Street is the best-preserved street of traditional Kütahya houses, with the Kossuth House museum nearby.

Also worth your time: the Great Mosque and the Archaeological Museum, the Dönenler Mosque, the Evliya Çelebi museum house, and the Dumlupınar battlefield memorials. The Phrygian rock monuments that spill across the borders with Eskişehir and Afyon are covered in our Phrygia guide.

What is the traditional food of Kütahya?

Kütahya’s kitchen is built on dough, yoghurt, tarhana and goat meat. The provincial directorate’s guide to local cuisine lists dozens of dishes, and a few are worth seeking out.

Cimcik is the local pasta: small pinched pieces of dough, like tiny bow ties, served with yoghurt, butter, cheese and walnuts or poppy seeds. In Domaniç it is eaten with dried yoghurt, called katık. Tarhana çorbası is the everyday soup, and the sour kızılcık tarhanası, made with cornelian cherries, is called “invalid’s soup” and given for colds and stomach complaints; Gediz holds an annual tarhana festival. Şipit are filled pastries with spinach, meat, cheese or nettle, and Emet is known for its cheese pide baked in a pine-wood oven.

Goat (erkeç) meat is central to Kütahya’s güveç, baked in a clay pot for about two hours, and to kürek kebabı, a stuffed shoulder of lamb or goat slow-cooked in an oven. For dessert, cevizli baklava closes a traditional set meal, and nişasta helvası, a halva of wheat starch, is made for Hıdrellez and special occasions.

What should you buy in Kütahya?

Tiles and ceramics. Plates, bowls, vases, coffee cups and tile panels painted with Kütahya’s floral patterns are the obvious souvenir, sold in workshops and shops throughout the centre. Buying directly from a workshop lets you see the painting and glazing.

Frequently asked questions about Kütahya

What do the official records say about Kütahya?

With its developing industry, rich underground and surface resources, university, thermal springs, handicrafts and history, Kütahya has significant tourism potential. While touring Kütahya, one should not forget that the world’s first ancient stock exchange was founded at Aizanoi (Kütahya), that the first and only tile museum in Europe and the world is in Kütahya, that Aizanoi is the soundest and best-preserved ancient city of Anatolia, that Evliya Çelebi was from Kütahya, and that the thermal springs of Kütahya are a cure for a thousand and one ailments.

Kütahya is a place where civilisations and cultures founded around 3000 BC blended together, and the first hosts of Kütahya in antiquity were the Phrygians. Kütahya later came under Roman, Byzantine, Germiyanid and Ottoman rule. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Kütahya Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)