Taraklıborglu

Safranbolu lies in a valley of the western Pontic mountains, where caravan roads connected inland Anatolia with the Black Sea. The town takes its name from the saffron grown in its countryside. Its steep streets, timber-framed houses, mosques and market buildings form a distinctive Ottoman townscape, shaped by the slopes and watercourses that divide its neighbourhoods.

From the thirteenth century Safranbolu became an important stopping place for caravans. In the seventeenth century its prosperity found expression in substantial public buildings. The Cinci Han, a two-storey inn around a courtyard, provided rooms for travelling merchants; it is traditionally attributed to Cinci Hoca, a native of the town who rose to prominence at the Ottoman court. Baths and mosques served the population as well as visitors who came along the road.

Caravan trade remained central to the local economy in the eighteenth century, alongside leatherworking in tanneries south of the town. More than eighty tanneries were recorded in the area, producing leather for a trade that complemented the movement of caravans through the mountains. By the early nineteenth century the market quarter, the Greek Orthodox neighbourhood of Kıranköy and the summer houses of Bağlar formed distinct parts of its urban life. Safranbolu's buildings record the wealth created by travel, trade and crafts in a mountain setting.