Isparta

i.The Lakes Region and the Pisidian Highlands

Isparta sits in the central country of the great Lakes Region (Göller Yöresi) of southwestern Anatolia — the upland plateau between the high Toros mountains to the south and the lower western Anatolian plains to the west. The provincial seat is on a broad plain at 1,035 metres elevation, surrounded by the principal lake country: Eğirdir Gölü (468 square kilometres, Türkiye's fourth-largest natural lake) to the northeast; Beyşehir Gölü on the eastern provincial border; Burdur Gölü on the western border; and the smaller Kovada Gölü, Gölcük, and Akgöl within the province.

The province extends to 8,946 square kilometres and supports a population of 446,409 under the TÜİK 2024 count, organised into thirteen districts: the central Merkez, Eğirdir, Yalvaç (the principal eastern town, on the Antioch in Pisidia site), Şarkikaraağaç, Sütçüler, Senirkent, Uluborlu, Aksu, Atabey, Gelendost, Gönen, Keçiborlu, and Yenişarbademli.

ii.The Pisidian Country and Antioch (Yalvaç)

The Isparta country is the historic heartland of classical Pisidia — the upland Greek-and-indigenous-Anatolian country of the western Toros, whose principal city in the Hellenistic and Roman periods was Antioch in Pisidia (Pisidian Antiokheia), founded c. 280 BCE by the Seleucid king Seleucus I Nicator on a commanding hill above the modern town of Yalvaç. Antioch became one of the principal Roman colonies of Asia Minor under Augustus (Colonia Caesareia Antiochia, founded as a veteran colony c. 25 BCE) and the capital of the Roman province of Pisidia.

The city's most famous historical association is with the apostle Paul, who visited Antioch on each of his three missionary journeys (Acts 13:14–52, 14:21, 16:6), and whose first major sermon to a Gentile audience — preserved in Acts 13:16–41 — was delivered in the Antioch synagogue. The surviving monuments include the great Augustan-period imperial sanctuary complex with the Temple of Augustus and the propylaeum; the theatre; the principal Roman bath complex; the Decumanus Maximus; and the foundations of the Church of St Paul, the substantial late-antique church built over the traditional Pauline preaching site. The Yalvaç Müzesi at the foot of the site holds the principal regional archaeological collection.

iii.The Byzantine and Hamidoğulları Centuries

Through the long Byzantine centuries the Pisidian country was held under the thema of Anatolikon. The Seljuk conquest of the late 11th century, the Mongol Ilkhanate from the late 13th, and the rise of the principal local beylik — the Hamidoğulları (Hamidids) centred at Eğirdir from c. 1280 — brought the country into the post-Seljuk Turkish political world. The Hamidids built substantially at their Eğirdir capital and at Antalya (their southern coastal centre); the principal surviving Hamidid monument in the province is the great Hızırbey Camii (Hızır Bey Mosque) at Eğirdir, built in 1308. The dynasty was incorporated into the Ottoman state in 1391 under Bayezid I.

iv.Ottoman Centuries and the Late 19th-Century Rose Migration

Through the long Ottoman centuries Isparta was a working sancak of the Konya and (from 1864) Konya Vilayeti. The principal Ottoman-period monuments — the Firdevs Paşa (Mimar Sinan) Camii of 1561 (a documented work of the great Ottoman court architect Mimar Sinan, his only documented building in Isparta), the Iplikçi Camii, the Kütüphane-i Halıcızade — stand in the central historic district.

The single most consequential change in the modern economic life of the country came with the late-19th-century introduction of rose cultivation from the Bulgarian rose country. After the 1877–78 Russo-Ottoman war and the Bulgarian independence of 1878, substantial Muslim Bulgarian (and Crimean Tatar) refugees from the Balkan provinces resettled in the Isparta country, bringing with them the centuries-old kazanlık rose-oil distillation tradition of the famous Bulgarian Rose Valley. The new cultivation took to the Isparta soil and climate exceptionally well; by the 1920s Isparta had emerged as the principal rose-oil producing country of the wider Mediterranean world, and the modern title "Güller Diyarı" ("the Country of Roses") was established. Today the Isparta plain produces approximately 60% of the world's rose-oil supply; the principal cultivar is Rosa damascena, the famous "damask rose."

v.Eğirdir Gölü and the Castle of Croesus

Eğirdir Gölü is one of the most spectacular lake landscapes in Türkiye — a deep tectonic-graben lake of 468 square kilometres at 916 metres elevation, with the long narrow peninsula of Eğirdir town reaching out into the water for two kilometres, with the historic citadel at its tip. The town's name (also written Eğridir, "the bent one," in older Turkish — the form was changed to Eğirdir, "the spinner," in 1986 to avoid the negative connotation) preserves a long historical record.

The town's castle (Eğirdir Kalesi) was, by ancient tradition, originally built by Croesus of Lydia (c. 560–546 BCE), with substantial subsequent building under the Romans, the Byzantines, the Hamidoğulları, and the Ottomans. The Hamidoğulları Hızırbey Camii of 1308 stands within the castle precinct. The two small offshore islands — Yeşilada (Green Island) and Canada (Soul Island) — are reached by causeway from the peninsula and hold the surviving Greek-period Yeşilada churches (now converted to mosques) and the principal late-Ottoman lakefront residential quarter.

The lake is one of the principal Türkiye-side wintering grounds of the Dalmatian pelican and several other significant waterfowl species, and is one of the principal trout-and-zander fishing lakes of central Türkiye. The wider lake country includes the principal apple-orchard country of Türkiye — Isparta is, after the Karaman-Niğde axis, the second-largest apple-producing province of the country.

vi.The Republic and Süleyman Demirel

Under the early Republic Isparta was reorganised as one of the southwestern provinces of the new state. The 20th century brought the country the standard apparatus of the Republican country — the modern road network, the substantial irrigation programmes on the Isparta plain (the principal new agricultural infrastructure of the post-1950 period), the principal civic institutions of the modern city.

The single most influential modern Isparta figure is Süleyman Demirel (1924–2015), the eighth President of Türkiye (1993–2000), seven-time Prime Minister between 1965 and 1993, and one of the principal political figures of the 20th-century Turkish Republic. Demirel was born on 1 November 1924 in the small village of İslâmköy in Atabey district, the son of a small farming family; he was educated at the İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi as a civil engineer, and rose through the State Hydraulic Works (DSİ) as the architect of the great post-1950 Turkish dam-and-irrigation programme before entering politics in 1962. The modern Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi (SDÜ), founded in 1992 in the year of his return to the presidency, is the principal university of the modern province and one of the principal universities of southwestern Anatolia.

Demirel's tomb is at İslâmköy in Atabey district; the Süleyman Demirel Demokrasi ve Kalkınma Müzesi (Süleyman Demirel Democracy and Development Museum) was opened at the village in 2017.

vii.The Modern Rose-Oil Economy

The modern rose-oil industry is one of the principal economic activities of the province. The Isparta plain holds approximately 30,000 hectares of rose cultivation, producing some 13,000 tonnes of rose petals annually; the principal harvest is the last two weeks of May, with the famous early-morning harvest by hand (the petals must be picked before sunrise to preserve the volatile aromatic compounds). The traditional kazan (water-distillation) and the modern solvent-extraction methods are both used; the principal end products are the famous Isparta gül yağı (rose oil, approximately 5,000 kg/year — at the world price of $5,000–10,000/kg, one of the most valuable agricultural products of the wider Mediterranean), gülsuyu (rose water), gül reçeli (rose-petal preserve), and the increasingly important rose-petal cosmetics industry. The annual Isparta Gül Festivali in the last week of May is one of the principal agricultural festivals of Türkiye.

Isparta gülü has held EU PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) status since 2018, and Türk Patent ve Marka Kurumu registration since 2006.

viii.Other Pisidian Sites and the Sütçüler Country

The wider province preserves a number of other significant ancient Pisidian sites. Adada (in Sütçüler district, in the deep Köprülü Kanyon country) is one of the best-preserved Pisidian-period small towns, with the substantial Hellenistic-Roman agora, the Temple of Trajan, the Temple of Zeus Megistos, and the surviving city walls — a 90-minute walk from the principal modern road. Kremna in Bucak (on the Burdur border) is a substantial Pisidian-Roman colony with the surviving propylaeum and forum. Pednelissos in Sütçüler is a small Pisidian-period upland site with the spectacular surviving city walls.

The deep Köprülü Kanyon in Sütçüler — though more accessible from the Antalya side, with the principal monumental visit reached from the Antalya road — is one of the principal canyon-and-rafting destinations of the wider Lakes Region.

ix.Davraz, Skiing, and the Modern Mountain Tourism

Davraz Dağı (2,635 m), south of Isparta city on the road to Eğirdir, is the principal ski country of southwestern Anatolia: the Davraz Kayak Merkezi opened in 1994 and has been substantially expanded through the 2010s and 2020s, with four principal pistes and the modern chair-lift system. The principal season is December through March; the centre is one of the principal weekend ski destinations for the wider western-Anatolian population.

x.Modern Civic and University Life

The modern provincial capital is one of the most pleasant medium-sized cities of southwestern Anatolia: a substantial university student population (the SDÜ enrolment is over 40,000), the principal modern shopping streets along the central Mimar Sinan Caddesi, and the substantial historic district around the Firdevs Paşa Camii. The city is also the seat of Isparta Uygulamalı Bilimler Üniversitesi (Isparta University of Applied Sciences, founded 2018, carved from SDÜ), and of the principal civil airport of the Lakes Region, the Süleyman Demirel Havalimanı (15 kilometres south of the city, opened 1997).

xi.What to See, in Order

The principal first visit in the province is Eğirdir — 35 kilometres northeast of Isparta city — with the spectacular long peninsula reaching out into the lake, the historic Eğirdir Kalesi, the Hamidoğulları Hızırbey Camii of 1308, the lakeside walking circuit to Yeşilada, and the substantial small-town lakeside-restaurant tradition (the lake trout and zander are the principal local specialities).

The second principal visit is to Antioch in Pisidia (Yalvaç) — 100 kilometres northeast of Isparta city — with the great Augustan imperial sanctuary, the theatre, the Roman bath complex, the Pauline Church foundations, and the substantial Yalvaç Müzesi at the foot of the site.

At Isparta Merkez, the compact walking circuit covers the Firdevs Paşa (Mimar Sinan) Camii of 1561; the historic Iplikçi Camii; the modern Isparta Müzesi with the principal rose-oil industry interpretation centre; the central Mimar Sinan Caddesi with the substantial modern shopping district; and the principal viewpoint over the Isparta plain from the upper road. The rose-oil harvest country of Atabey, Gönen, and Senirkent districts — best visited in the last two weeks of May — is a short drive west and north of the city.

The wider province offers Adada in Sütçüler (the best-preserved small Pisidian town); Davraz Kayak Merkezi (the principal ski centre, December through March); İslâmköy in Atabey district (the Süleyman Demirel birthplace and museum); the spectacular Kovada Gölü Milli Parkı (the small national park immediately south of Eğirdir); and the principal Sagalassos and Salda visits (in the neighbouring Burdur province; see our Burdur essay).

The City of Roses on the Pisidian plateau — Antioch of St Paul's mission, Eğirdir on the water, and Süleyman Demirel of İslâmköy.

For the parallel Pisidian-Lakes country, see Burdur; for the Mediterranean coast immediately south, see the planned Antalya essay; for the parallel Hamidoğulları southern coast, see also Antalya. For more on the great Lakes Region, visit our sister site CountryOfTurkey.com.