Places to Visit in Polonezköy
Nihan Uğurlu · Keyfi Yazılarım ·
Travel memories from 2017. Hours and prices may change; check official links before visiting.
Personal travel notes, discoveries along the way and photographs from the original story.
Travel notes
Spring is here! Our last weekend escape to Polonezköy was a few years ago. This lovely village in nature near Istanbul is a place for picnics and fresh air. With April making us restless to get outside, it offers beautiful venues for barbecues, horse riding, ball games and time with children.
A leisurely breakfast, a nature walk, green countryside, a charming village beside you, tea in the shade and distinctive food in a Polish house… Leonardo Restaurant stood in Polonezköy's square. Its 90-year-old house was restored and opened in 1993 with the aim of continuing Turkish–Polish friendship. The menu drew on Turkish, Polish, Austrian, French and Slavic cuisines, with a wonderful buffet. It was a paradise for children too.
Polonezköy, formerly Adampol, is a Polish-founded village in Istanbul's Beykoz district, about 20 kilometres from the Black Sea and 15 from the Bosphorus.
A history of Polonezköy
The historical account cited in the original post says Poland was partitioned and occupied by Austria, Russia and Prussia in 1775, and that the Ottoman Empire, which did not accept the partition, made this area a refuge for Polish political exiles. It describes Polish soldiers and civilians joining the Ottomans during the Crimean War and Sultan Abdülmecid then allowing settlement here. Initially called Adamköy, later Polonez Karyesi, it received the name Polonezköy in 1923 in this account. The text also records citizenship documents in 1894 and guesthouse activity beginning around 1900. At publication, it mentioned about 80 Turkish citizens of Polish heritage living in the village. Adampol's residents had preserved Polish language and ancestral traditions for more than 150 years, and the village was known among Polish communities worldwide, with hundreds of books and articles about it. Houses stood behind low walls and tall trees, their entrances framed by climbing roses. These dates reflect the cited archive rather than a newly researched chronology.
Polonezköy is one of Istanbul's places worth seeing: somewhere to breathe away from crowds and concrete. I feel grateful that such natural beauty exists right beside the city 😊
Historical source: polonezkoy.com/polonezkoy.asp