Nicaea

Stand still for a moment and listen. Somewhere close, water laps against a pebbled shore, and the wind carries the smell of the lake across low rooftops and olive groves. Around you, a ring of old walls runs through gardens and side streets, brick and stone stacked in bands. This quiet country town is İznik. For much of its long life, the world knew it by another name... Nicaea.

The city grew up on the eastern edge of a wide lake, with hills rising behind it. That position mattered. It sat on routes between the Aegean coast, the Sea of Marmara and the Anatolian interior. Around 300 BCE, Lysimachus, one of the generals who divided Alexander the Great's empire, refounded the settlement. According to ancient sources, he named it after his wife, Nicaea. The name stayed for well over a thousand years.

Look at the streets as you walk. They are straight, and they cross at right angles. This grid comes from the Hellenistic planners who laid out the city. Two main avenues run roughly north to south and east to west. They meet near the centre and point toward the main gates. Many visitors walk these streets without noticing. Yet the town still follows a plan more than two thousand years old.

Now turn your attention to the walls. They circle the old town for several kilometres. The defences you see today are mostly Roman and Byzantine work, repaired again and again over the centuries. Notice the rhythm of the masonry — layers of red brick between courses of stone, a typical Byzantine method. Here and there, older pieces sit inside the wall. Carved blocks, column fragments and inscriptions were reused as building material. Look closely, and the wall shows its own history of repair.

The gates are the best places to read this story. The Istanbul Gate faces north, toward the old imperial capital. The Lefke Gate opens to the east, and the Yenişehir Gate to the south. A fourth gate, the Lake Gate, once led down to the water. Several of these gateways carry Roman decoration and inscriptions. Some stand in layers, with an outer gate, a courtyard and an inner gate. Walking through one feels like passing through several centuries in a few steps.

Here is the moment that made this town famous. In the year 325, the emperor Constantine called bishops from across the Roman world to Nicaea. They met to settle a bitter dispute about the nature of Christ. This gathering is known as the First Council of Nicaea. It produced the first version of the Nicene Creed, a statement of belief still recited in many churches today. Millions of people speak words shaped here, in this small lakeside town.

The council also tried to agree on how to set the date of Easter. That question troubled Christians for centuries afterwards. The exact building where the bishops met is not known for certain. Some scholars link the council to an imperial palace, perhaps near the lake. In 2025, the seventeen-hundredth anniversary of the council brought church leaders and pilgrims back to İznik. Their visit was a reminder that this place still matters to people far away.

In the middle of town stands the Hagia Sophia of Nicaea, a name that means Holy Wisdom. It is far smaller than its namesake in Istanbul. In 787, a second church council met here. It ruled on the use of icons, the holy images that some emperors had tried to ban. After the Ottoman conquest, the church became a mosque. Later it fell into ruin, then became a museum. Today it serves again as a mosque, so dress modestly and respect prayer times.

Inside, look down as well as up. Fragments of old floor and traces of wall painting survive from the Byzantine era. The building has been rebuilt more than once after earthquakes and fires. So the walls carry different periods side by side. It is a modest space. Yet two of the great councils of the early church shaped decisions inside or near these walls.

Nicaea's story did not end with the councils. In the late eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks took the city and made it a capital for a short time. In 1097, armies of the First Crusade besieged it, and the city returned to Byzantine rule. Then, after crusaders captured Constantinople in 1204, Byzantine nobles fled here. They ruled from Nicaea as an empire in exile until they recovered their capital in 1261. For more than half a century, this town was the heart of the Byzantine world.

In 1331, the Ottomans under Sultan Orhan took the city. A new chapter began. Walk toward the eastern side of town to find the Green Mosque, built in the late fourteenth century. Its minaret was once covered in green and blue glazed tiles. The colour gave the mosque its name. Nearby, a small museum holds finds from the area. They include pottery, inscriptions and pieces of carved stone.

Here is a second surprise. In later Ottoman centuries, İznik became the most celebrated ceramic centre of the empire. Its workshops produced tiles and dishes in cobalt blue, turquoise and a bright, raised red. These tiles decorate palaces and mosques in Istanbul and beyond. The craft declined, but in recent decades local workshops have brought it back. Walk the shopping streets and you will see artisans painting tulips, carnations and vines by hand.

One more discovery waits by the lake. In 2014, aerial photographs showed the outline of a stone basilica under the water, close to the shore. Archaeologists believe it was an early Christian church, later covered by the rising lake. On calm, clear days, its shape can sometimes be seen from above. It is a quiet reminder that much of old Nicaea still lies hidden under fields, houses and water.

As you leave, walk down to the lakeshore if you can. Watch the light move across the water and the hills beyond. Behind you, the walls still mark the line of the ancient city. Families sit at tea gardens, and fishing boats rest near the shore. Emperors, bishops, crusaders and sultans all passed through here. Today, the loudest sound may be a teaspoon against a glass... and the slow, steady lapping of the lake.