Foça

Foça stands on a sheltered Aegean harbour north of Smyrna, at the site of ancient Phocaea. The Greek city was renowned for its seafarers, who founded colonies far across the Mediterranean. Its rocky peninsulas and islands protect the anchorage, while the hills behind the shore contain deposits that later made the area valuable to merchants.

In the late thirteenth century the Byzantine emperor granted Phocaea and its alum resources to the Genoese Zaccaria family. Alum was essential to dyeing and other crafts, and its trade brought considerable wealth to the Genoese lords. The twin settlements of Old and New Phocaea formed part of a network of Genoese commercial interests in the eastern Mediterranean. Ottoman expansion eventually brought the harbour under a new power, but its fortifications and old port retained traces of its maritime past.