Kütahya

i.The Frigya Highlands and the Porsuk Country

Kütahya sits in the upland country of western Anatolia at 970 metres elevation — the historic Frigya highlands on the headwaters of the Porsuk Çayı, the principal northern tributary of the Sakarya river. The country runs east toward Eskişehir, north toward Bursa, west toward Balıkesir, and south toward the Aegean valleys of Manisa and Uşak. The principal physical feature of the central country is the great basalt citadel of the city itself, with the historic town clustered at its foot; the wider province includes the small but distinctive Murat Dağı (2,309 m) thermal-resort country in the south, the upland Simav mountain country in the southwest, and the substantial lignite-mining country of Tavşanlı and Tunçbilek in the north.

The province extends to 11,634 square kilometres and supports a population of 571,078 under the TÜİK 2024 count, organised into thirteen districts: the central Merkez, the principal industrial town of Tavşanlı, Simav, Gediz, Emet, Çavdarhisar (the Aizanoi district), Domaniç, Hisarcık, Altıntaş, Aslanapa, Şaphane, Pazarlar, and Dumlupınar (the historic 30 August 1922 battlefield district).

ii.From Phrygia to Aizanoi

The Kütahya country first enters the historical record under the Hittite empire of the second millennium BCE, as part of the wider central-western Anatolian sphere. After the Hittite collapse the country became the heartland of Phrygia, the Indo-European Anatolian kingdom of the early first millennium BCE whose principal capital was at Gordion (in modern Ankara province) and whose principal eastern country lay across the modern Eskişehir-Kütahya-Afyonkarahisar axis. The Phrygian-period rock-cut monumental tombs and inscriptional country of Yazılıkaya (Midas Şehri) in neighbouring Afyon, and the surrounding Frigya Vadisi country in the modern Han, İhsaniye, and Seyitgazi (Eskişehir) districts, preserve the principal Phrygian monumental record.

The Phrygian state was conquered by the Lydian Mermnads in the 6th century BCE, then by the Achaemenid Persians (546 BCE), Alexander (333 BCE), the Seleucids and Attalids in succession, and from 133 BCE by the Roman empire. Through the long Roman centuries the principal Phrygian-Anatolian-region city was Aizanoi on the upper Penkalas (modern Kocaçay) river, 60 kilometres south of modern Kütahya in the modern Çavdarhisar district.

iii.Aizanoi and the Temple of Zeus (UNESCO Tentative 2012)

Aizanoi is one of the best-preserved single Roman-Anatolian monumental cities, with the spectacular Temple of Zeus as its principal monument. The temple — a Corinthian peripteros of 15-by-8 columns standing on a high podium with an enclosed crypt below — was dedicated under the emperor Domitian in either AD 92 or AD 94/95 (per the recent reading of the eastern-architrave inscription), built on the site of an earlier Hellenistic sanctuary. It is one of the rarest Roman temples in Anatolia to have survived in close to its original architectural form: the cella, the surrounding colonnade, and the principal entablature are substantially intact, and the building stands today as it stood at the time of its 2nd-century use.

The wider city includes the great stadium-and-theatre complex (the only fully integrated stadium-theatre composition surviving in the ancient world, with the curved stadium north end functioning also as the theatre cavea); the substantial macellum with its famous Edictum Diocletiani de pretiis inscription (the principal surviving stone copy of Diocletian's Price Edict of 301 CE); the Penkalas-river bridges (two surviving Roman-Byzantine stone bridges still carrying traffic today); the Roman baths complex; and the famous thermae cellars. The site was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2012 and is one of the principal candidate Anatolian sites for full inscription. The principal continuing excavation programme has been conducted since 1970 under the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in association with the Türk Tarih Kurumu and (since 2012) the Pamukkale Üniversitesi.

iv.The Byzantine, Seljuk, and Germiyanoğulları Centuries

Through the long Byzantine centuries the principal town of the country was at Kotyaion (Greek Κοτύαιον) on the site of the modern Kütahya. The town was held under the theme of Anatolikon, and was a substantial Byzantine military centre on the route from the western coast to the central Anatolian plateau. The Seljuk conquest came in the late 11th century after Manzikert; through the 12th and 13th centuries the country was held in succession by the Anatolian Seljuks, the Mongol Ilkhanate, and from c. 1284 by the Germiyanoğulları (Germiyan) beylik — one of the principal post-Seljuk Turkmen principalities of western Anatolia.

The Germiyanoğulları established their capital at Kütahya from 1302; under the principal Germiyan rulers — Yakup Bey I, Mehmed Bey, Süleyman Şah, and the famous Yakup Bey II — the country flourished as one of the principal cultural centres of late-medieval western Anatolia. The principal surviving Germiyan-period monuments are the Kurşunlu (Kasımpaşa) Camii of 1377, with the celebrated monochrome turquoise-glazed tiles on the minaret balcony — the earliest dated Kütahya tiles; the Yakup Bey II İmâret (1428) with its rare surviving Germiyan-period colored-glazed border tiles; the Germiyan Sarayı traditional palace site at the foot of the citadel; and the substantial Germiyan-period bedesten in the historic bazaar quarter.

The Germiyanoğulları passed to the Ottoman state in 1428–29 by the deathbed bequest of Yakup Bey II to Sultan Murad II — an unusual peaceful transfer that has been described in Ottoman historical tradition as the model of the peaceful Ottoman-beylik incorporation. The transfer brought Kütahya into the Ottoman state without conquest.

v.The Long Ottoman Centuries

Through the long Ottoman centuries Kütahya was a working sancak — and from the 17th century the seat of the substantial Anadolu Eyaleti, the principal Anatolian eyalet of the empire (the eyalet's central authority moved from Ankara to Kütahya in 1451, and the city remained the formal seat of the Anatolian beylerbeyi for the next four centuries). The principal Ottoman-period monuments include the Ulu Camii (rebuilt under Sultan Bayezid I, c. 1410, with substantial restoration by Mimar Sinan under Süleyman the Magnificent), the Cinili Camii, the Saatli Cami, the substantial Ottoman-period bedesten, and the principal old quarter — the famous Germiyan Caddesi historic streetscape with the great Konak ve Bey Konağı tradition.

The Ottoman city was the principal residence-in-exile of Lajos Kossuth, the famous Hungarian nationalist leader of the 1848 Revolution, who lived at Kütahya in 1850–51 after the Ottoman state granted him asylum; the Kossuth Müzesi in his old residence is one of the principal museums of the modern city. Other famous Ottoman-period Kütahya exiles include the Bektaşi spiritual master Şeyh Galip's circle of the early 19th century.

vi.The Çini (Ceramics) Tradition

The most internationally distinctive feature of Kütahya is its çini (ceramics) tradition — one of the principal cultural-industrial heritages of Türkiye. The city's ceramics production began under the Germiyanoğulları period (the 1377 Kurşunlu Camii tiles are the earliest dated examples); through the 16th century the city was the principal subordinate centre to the famous İznik tile-and-pottery workshops (see our planned Bursa essay), producing characteristic blue-and-white wares for the wider Ottoman market.

The decisive change came in the 17th century, when the İznik workshops entered their long decline and Kütahya emerged as the principal Turkish ceramics centre of the wider Ottoman empire. The Kütahya çini of the late 17th and 18th centuries — characterised by the new yellow-and-green palette alongside the older blue-and-white, by the substantial Armenian-Christian artisan community contribution to the technical and figurative innovations, and by the broad European-export market — emerged as one of the principal Ottoman luxury-export industries. The famous Kütahya rim-glazed bowls and pitchers, the tile panels for ecclesiastical and palace settings, and the Armenian-tradition figurative wares reached substantial European collections through the 18th and 19th centuries.

The modern Kütahya çini industry combines a continuing traditional handicraft sector (the principal traditional workshops cluster around the Saatli Cami area), a substantial modern industrial-ceramics sector (Kütahya Porselen, founded 1970, is one of the principal Turkish porcelain houses), and the major contemporary tile-and-sanitary-ware exporter NG Kütahya Seramik. The Çini Müzesi in the historic Vacidiye Medresesi is the principal museum of the tradition.

vii.The National Struggle and the 30 August 1922 Victory

The Kütahya country was at the centre of the most consequential single phase of the Turkish National Struggle. The Greek army of Asia Minor, advancing eastward from İzmir through the summer of 1921, took Kütahya in July 1921 and held the city for the following thirteen months. The decisive Turkish counter-offensive of the Great Offensive (Büyük Taarruz) opened on 26 August 1922 from the Turkish lines at Afyonkarahisar; by 30 August the principal Greek field force was surrounded and defeated at the historic Battle of Dumlupınar, fought on the plains immediately southwest of Kütahya in the modern Dumlupınar district. The battle — the principal field engagement of the Turkish War of Independence — is observed annually in Türkiye as the Zafer Bayramı (Victory Day, 30 August) and is one of the four principal national holidays of the Republic.

The principal monumental site of the battle is the Başkomutanlık Tarihi Millî Parkı (the Commander-in-Chief Historical National Park), declared in 1981 across the principal battlefields of the Great Offensive; the central Başkomutan Anıtı at Zafertepe in Dumlupınar district is the principal monument of the 30 August victory.

viii.The Republic and the Modern Industrial Province

Under the early Republic Kütahya was reorganised as one of the western Anatolian provinces of the new state. The 20th century brought the country substantial industrial development: the large-scale lignite-mining country of Tavşanlı and Tunçbilek in the north (one of the principal Turkish lignite-coal basins, supplying the substantial Seyitömer Termik Santrali thermal power station from 1970); the substantial sugar-refinery and food-processing industry of the Kütahya plain; the substantial modern ceramics industry; and the substantial agriculture (wheat, barley, sugar beet, and the famous Tavşanlı cherries).

The province is the seat of Kütahya Dumlupınar Üniversitesi (founded 1992, renamed in 2018 to add the historic battlefield name), one of the principal universities of western Anatolia; and of Kütahya Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi (founded 2017). The modern provincial economy is one of the most diversified of any western Anatolian province, combining the long ceramics tradition, the substantial mining-and-power-generation sector, and the substantial agricultural base.

ix.The Thermal Country and the Murat Dağı

The wider Kütahya province is one of the principal thermal-spring countries of western Anatolia: the famous Yoncalı, Ilıca, and Harlek springs in the central country, and the substantial spa country of Emet and Simav in the south have supported a continuous thermal-bath tradition since Roman times. The principal modern spa development is at Termal Yoncalı, fifteen kilometres west of the city, where the substantial Romana-and-Ottoman-period bath has been redeveloped under the post-2000 SPA-resort programme.

Murat Dağı in Gediz district (2,309 m) is the principal upland country, with the famous Murat Dağı Kayak Merkezi (the modest regional ski centre), the substantial summer pasturage country, and the principal Şaphane province alum-mining country (one of the principal historic alum-export sources of Asia Minor).

x.The Frigya Vadisi Country

The southern Kütahya province extends into the great Frigya Vadisi country of upland western Anatolia — the spectacular rock-formation landscape shared with the neighbouring Eskişehir and Afyonkarahisar provinces, with the Phrygian-period rock-cut tombs, the inscriptional country, and the principal Phrygian monumental cult sites. The Kütahya-side Frigya monuments — the Aslantaş ve Yılantaş Phrygian Tombs in Aslanapa district, the rock-cut Phrygian inscription country of Altıntaş, the substantial Phrygian-period upland-fortification country — preserve one of the principal Phrygian-period architectural records.

xi.What to See, in Order

The principal first visit in the province is to Aizanoi (Çavdarhisar) — 60 kilometres south of Kütahya city — with the spectacular Temple of Zeus, the unique stadium-theatre complex, the macellum with the Diocletian Price Edict inscription, the substantial Penkalas-river Roman bridges, and the principal Çavdarhisar visitor centre.

At Kütahya Merkez, the compact walking circuit covers the historic citadel on the basalt ridge above the city; the Ulu Camii of c. 1410 (with the Sinan restoration); the Kurşunlu (Kasımpaşa) Camii of 1377 with the earliest dated Kütahya tiles; the substantial Çini Müzesi in the Vacidiye Medresesi; the historic Germiyan Caddesi old-quarter streetscape; the Kossuth Müzesi (the Lajos Kossuth residence-in-exile); the modern Kütahya Müzesi with the principal regional collection; and the traditional çini-workshop quarter around Saatli Cami. The famous Kütahya kebabı and the local rose-petal preserve are the principal regional culinary specialities.

The wider province offers Dumlupınar (the great Başkomutanlık Tarihi Millî Parkı, with the central Başkomutan Anıtı and the principal battlefield-walking circuit); the spectacular Frigya Vadisi Phrygian rock-tomb country of Aslanapa and Altıntaş; the substantial thermal spa country of Yoncalı, Ilıca, and Emet; Murat Dağı in Gediz with the modest ski centre and the substantial summer pasturage; and the substantial lignite-and-mining country of Tavşanlı in the north.

The Çini Capital of Türkiye — Aizanoi's Temple of Zeus, Yakup Bey's peaceful bequest, and the great 17th-century ceramics tradition.

For the parallel Phrygian-tile tradition, see Bursa (planned — İznik); for the National-Struggle field of operations, see the planned Afyonkarahisar essay (the launching point of the 26 August 1922 Great Offensive); for the parallel post-Seljuk west-Anatolian beyliks, see Uşak (next in this set) and the planned Manisa essay. For more on the great Anatolian ceramics tradition, visit our sister site CountryOfTurkey.com.