Bursa in October 2006. Cumalıkızık Village is located 10 kilometers west of Bursa, in the foothills of Mt. Uludağ. Its history goes back to the founding of the Ottoman Empire. Many of the architectural structures in the village have been preserved and thus as of late, the village has been featured in many Turkish movies. This has resulted in a renewed interest in the village by the Turks and there are now 270 historial houses in stages of restoration and maintenace. 180 houses that have been lived in for some time.


As can been seen by the photographs, the houses are made of wood, mud, and rubblestones and most of them are triplex. The upstairs windows are generally latticed with a bay window.

The handles and knockers on the main entry doors are made out of wrough iron. The smaller knockers are used by the women and the larger one by the men. Each knocker produces a different sound, thus people inside the house know what gendered person is about to enter; this was important for religious and cultural reasons.

As can be seen from some of the photographs the streets are cobblestoned, very narrow, and have no sidewalk.

The village has a mosque, a fountain, and a bath house with one dome which go back to the time of the Ottoman Empire. In 1969, the remains of a Byzantine church were unearthed in the southeast of the village.


Kizik refers to the villages that are clustered together between the foot of Mt. Uludag and the valleys and the name stands for one of the twenty-four clans of the Oghuz Turks. Friday’s (Cuma in Turkish) were a day of formal gathering for worship in the village. The village contains a ethnography musuem where the village has collected historial objects of interest. There are some additional architectural works from the village on display in the Archeological Museum of Bursa.