Zeytinbağı

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Country	Turkey
Zeytinbağı(Triglia-Trilye)
Location of Zeytinbağı within Turkey.
Province	Bursa
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
- Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code	16x xx
Area code(s)	0224
Licence plate	16
Website: [1]

Zeytinbağı (also Triglia or Tirilye, Triglia/Τριγλια in greek) is a town in Bursa Province, Mudanya, Turkey, situated 12 km (7.46 mi) west of Mudanya. Trilye (Triglia) is a quaint township along the Marmara Sea shoreline. The most important historical structure in Trilye(Triglia) is that of the Byzantine Aya Todori Church, known today as the Fatih Mosque. Mudanya, a residential and commercial development in this township is under state protection as a historical site. With its clean air, sea, fish, and tranquility, Trilye is an ideal vacation town.

The stone school building, which is called "Taş Mektep" (which literally means "stone mektep", stone school) and which has been nearly destroyed, was built as a monastery in early 1900s. Before the War of Independence, it was an orphanage and since then it has been used for educational courses. The building now belongs to Bursa Uludağ University and is currently under restoration.

Only 2500 people currently live in the town. In the town are the ruins of old Byzantine churches. Old Greek houses built at the end of the 19th Century line what few streets are left. This town is under the protection by the Ministry of Culture so no one can destroy the old houses or rebuild them in a different style than the original one. By the sea there are nice fish restaurants. You can have your meal in one of them. The place is famous for its olives. Zeytingbagi means olive yard and you can taste nice olives and olive oil in the town.

[edit] History

The area has been host to various civilizations since antiquity. Tirilye is the original village. Although the name of the village has been changed to Zeytinbağı (Olive Orchard), it is still called Tirilye.^{[citation needed]}

There are several legends about the origins of the name. One is that the area was famous for red mullet and red gurnard and that those fish were the main course of the Byzantine emperors' tables. "Trigleia"(Triglia lucerna) is a word in Hellenic Greek for such fish.

In another story, the priests Aya Yorgi, Aya Satri and Aya Yani were in disagreement with the archbishop during the Consul of Nicaea (İznik Consul) in the 4th century. As a result of this, these priests were excommunicated and settled here. "Tri" means three -(üç), and "İlya" means priest -(papaz).

The last legend comes from the Geneose. Three inhabitants of the village were distressed by the looting of pirates. Therefore, they combined their power and decided to live together. The name Tirilye is said to be derived from those three villagers: "Tri" meaning three (üç).

Before the Ottomans, the area was a residential area for Anatolian Greeks. Even after the Ottoman Empire absorbed the area, the Christian community continued to live there as before. Although some Muslims from several areas in Anatolia had settled here the Christian population continued to be the majority. As a result of the population exchange after the War of Independence, the Greeks migrated to Greece and Muslim immigrants from Salonica (Thessaloniki) settled in Tirilye.

Before the population exchange in 1923, much of the towns' Greek population fled Tirilye with the help of local businessman and ship owner Phillipos Kavounidis. The refugees were taken to Rafina, Greece where icons from the churches can currently be seen inside one of the local churches. In 1929, the refugee camp that they founded, New Tirilye, was fully merged with the municipality of Rafina.