Aydın Söke‘s small, quiet, peaceful and happy solitude Doganbey Village gave us an unexpected day. We set out from Kusadasi with the enthusiasm of visiting the surrounding villages, and after 1.5 hours we found ourselves at the entrance of Doğanbey Village.. If I said a village, I’m not talking about a settlement where there are 50 touristic shops in it, the famous food, and the style of returning without drinking it.. This is a village on the slopes of Dilek Peninsula National Park on the Carina road, overlooking the sea with its clean wind buried between the mountains.. Here is Doganbey Travel Guide..
When you leave the car at the entrance of the village and start walking on the stone roads, you realize that it is actually very quiet here.. “No one lives, why are the houses empty” questions echo in your mind. First of all, it’s good to know. Doğanbey is one of the Aegean lands that hosted the population exchange.. The first settlement was formed after the 1850s, after escaping from malaria, with the edict of Sultan Abdulaziz and the Greeks residing here.. The “Priest’s House” is the most famous house in the village, even. There was a church, it was burnt to ashes. Later, in the exchange, the Greeks left their village Domatia as it was then called and migrated, the Turks came and settled.. It is actually divided into two as old and new Doğanbey. The new one is the settlement center where the villagers live, and the old Doğanbey, where only one family lives, where you will go for a tour.
Doğanbey Village promises you peace, calmness and effort.. The fact that it has not yet been flooded with tourists makes it possible to fulfill this promise.. There are several cafes where you can have a drink and chat with the locals.. I think we came across the most beautiful one, D-Village Cafe. What a conversation we had with our sweet couple, who live alone in the village, while drinking delicious lemonade made from lemon trees in this cute cafe.
This cafe was founded by fashion designer Oylum Öktem, the daughter of the late Architect Tankut Öktem. Find a place to drink tea and coffee. Well, as I said at the beginning, this village wants to be remembered not as a tourist attraction, but as a place of education.. In the summer of 2016, a training camp was organized for 20 architectural students in the village and this education was approved by Mimar Sinan University and counted as course credits.. The aim is to make this a village of fine arts.
There is a flower in the village called Purple Cupflower”. It grows only in this village in the world, so it is very forbidden to pluck it.. When you go to the “Museum of Ottoman Clothing” in the village, you can see this flower on the wall.. I will also come to the museum.
We were so lucky and lucky that we met the Aksoy couple, the only family living in the village and had the opportunity to listen to all the information I told firsthand.
Erol Aksoy, retired colonel who left the army. He graduated from dozens of schools in his time, studied in America, at the age of 84, a freestanding library.. For example, the NATO Tower in Katarina is his project.. “She made me study poor people’s tax, I have to be worthy of them”. He teaches children in need in the village.. His wife, Emel Aksoy, was one of the most beautiful women of the world, she devoted her life to completing her collection of traditional clothes, she exhibited this collection in countries as far away as Mexico in the 1970s, and who dressed whom.. His ancestry is based on the palace. One of the businessmen his uncle Atatürk worked with.
Erol Bey wanted to turn the ruined mosque in the village into a cultural center, but of course it was rejected.. When an Englishman living in the village at that time wanted to fill these houses with English people and turn this place into an English village, Uncle Erol sent him to his own lands under the pretext of his illness, and our dear Englishman did not come back from his illness.. Oh it’s good that this village has remained so calm and peaceful. In fact, the museum where the collection is exhibited was his house, and they bought it for 200 thousand TL at the time.. Considering that 750 thousand Euros is currently being asked for the priest’s house, I can say that they did very well!
The entrance to the museum is 20 TL. It’s worth every penny. With this money they collect, they feed 50-odd cats and many dogs that they take care of in the village.. Already on the way to the village, “Do you want something?” When asked, their only answer is “Food for animals”. And of course, they cover the expenses of the museum.. For example, the door of the museum used to be made of Siberian Pine, but since a bee-like black insect carved this tree, they replaced it with a chestnut tree.. The museum received a score of 94 out of 100 by the Netherlands, but I think our Ministry of Tourism does not support it.
What is in the museum? Not for a lifetime, but for a few lifetimes. Emel Hanım’s grandmother’s wedding dress, nightgown, pieces from her dowry, photographs of her uncle from the time she worked with Atatürk, the chest where state documents were kept in the Ottoman period.. Women’s costumes specific to each region in Turkey; with its headdress, three skirts, belts and jackets, it tells us about the culture peculiar to our regions.. For example; The headdress of the slap woman is full of money because when their husbands ask for a loan from their wives, they take the money out of their headdress and give it away. said. Or, all the yellow colors in the headlines represented the femininity and fertility of women.
It was an incredible experience for us to hear all this information from a world-sweet, culture-master couple.. I definitely recommend both the museum and the village.. An unforgettable village is waiting for you in peace.
If you want to enrich your route, you can stop by the ancient city of Priene, which comes after Güllübahçe, by following the brown signs on the road and go to Doğanbey. After visiting her village, you can go to Karina.
I had a lot of fun writing this article, I hope you did too.. Don’t forget to leave your additional questions and comments in the comments section below.
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