A Research for the churches in the historical city center of Ayvalık

The city centre of Ayvalık is an area which has been able to keep samples of churches characteristics of times starting from the beginning of the 19th century in a significant degree. The city was a Rum settlement until the exchange. The religious buildings in the city were churches made for the needs of that community. The Rum Orthodox community built a large number of churches to show their political existance in the area. These churches which come across with their size and numbers make up the cities important landmarks. The Rum Orthodox Church architecture has been limited by the Ottoman ruling, and has become one with the era is social history. The Rum Orthodox Churches in the city centre of Ayvalık have been shaped in a neoclasic style along with the architecture understanding of the local area, and have become a style of its own with the join its together. Ayvalık falls between the cities of Balıkesir and İzmir. It lies on a sea shore with its low hills. The Rums and the Turks have lived together in the area for a very long time and influenced each other. This influence has reflected on to the physical area as well. The Muslim Turkish population replaced the Christian Rum population and therefore the church congregation had to abandon their churches. To meet the needs of the muslim population, minarets, numbers and niches were added to some of the churches, and these were turned into mosques. The other churches were mainly used as warehouses or were left abandoned.In this research done to determine the number of churches in the city centre of Ayvalık: 7 surviving churches, 4 curches that are known about but not surviving were found totaling 1 1 churches. Even though the number of churches is quessed to be more, this could not be determined because of inadequate data. There are no documentation about the characteristics of those churches which are known about but not surviving. Therefore, only the surviving churches were studied. These were qrouped according to the characteristics of naos and apsis. The present state of the 7 surviving churches need to be determined and releve, restitution and restotration projects should be prepared. Support should be seeked from universities for the projects. Citizens and the govenment should be asked to give finantial support. The continuation of the churches should be ensured by giving them functions which would answer the needs of the city and also by not disturbing the present state of them as much as possible. Preservation these cultural beings which carry the past to the future is the duty of every conscious society.