Birgi

Birgi lies on the slopes above the Küçük Menderes valley in western Anatolia. It was the first capital of the Aydınid principality, whose rulers left mosques, tombs and schools among its narrow streets. The great mosque, completed in 1312 by the dynasty's founder Mehmed Bey, combines stonework with a richly decorated mihrab and carved wooden pulpit.

Under the Aydınids, Birgi was a centre of political and religious patronage. Mehmed Bey's tomb stands near the mosque, and later generations added a bath and a school associated with the scholar Birgivi. The town remained inhabited after the principality passed into Ottoman hands. In the eighteenth century a leather merchant built the Çakırağa mansion, whose painted interiors and timber construction show the prosperity of a later household. These buildings preserve the changing character of a town that had once governed a much wider region.