Spread the word. The Troy Culture Road Festival within the scope of Türkiye's Ministry of Culture and Tourism Culture Road project of reviving cultural heritage started on Friday with the participation of Culture Minister Nuri Ersoy, Deputy Culture Minister Özgül Özkan Yavuz and Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Group Deputy Chairperson Bülent Turan, as well as national and foreign press members. The cultural regalement that highlights Çanakkale's rich texture in terms of architectural and historical heritage will last until Sept. 25.

This cultural festival, which is a collection of thousands of memories, documents and works, is an unprecedented cultural movement in the world that revives the city's memories starting from ancient times to the modern day. The iconic venues of the city and hair-raising, unusual museums and exhibitions are the focus of the 30 different destinations included in the route, and I was luckily a part of the first two-day program. All of the stops are very valuable and worth seeing, such as the ancient sites and Gallipoli Historical Underwater Park.

Those who have had the chance to travel to Çanakkale should definitely be part of this unique cultural movement to gain insight into the history of humankind.

Sea Charts Exhibition

The first destination of the program, the Sea Charts Exhibition, features historical maps, from pioneering geographer and cartographer Piri Reis' "Kitab-ı Bahriye" to maps prepared in the first years of the Turkish republic. With the participation of Minister Ersoy, accompanied by naval officers, it was opened to the public and engraved in the city's memory as a standing witness to history. While the maps that were plotted according to the observation of the moon's movement and angular distances of stars fascinate the visitors, the hyperreal sculpture of Piri Reis recreates the prominent figure in flesh and blood.

Çanakkale Battles Research Center

Opened on the first day of the culture road with the participation of Ersoy, the center, the former Coastal Medical Building and then used as a mansion, embodies a large archive detailing Çanakkale battles, opening dust-gathered pages of documents in five languages, namely, Ottoman Turkish, Turkish, English, French and German.

This center was established to identify and provide rich, written, visual and audio information and documents, making them accessible to researchers in an integrated manner with foreign sources. The center also features the journal of Col. George Talbot, who commanded the HMS Majestic, which was a pre-dreadnought battleship added to the naval fleet as it could easily pass the Dardanelles and reach Istanbul. It now lies at a depth of 18-23 meters (59-76 feet) offshore near Seddülbahir.

Also, the posters that called men to fight in the Dardanelles are worth seeing in terms of providing a well-rounded understanding of the great wars.

Anadolu Hamidiye Bastion

The Anatolian Hamidiye Bastion, which was built by Sultan Abdülhamid II in 1892 to ensure the security of the Dardanelles and was one of the bastions where the hot conflict took place in the 1915 Gallipoli campaign, hosts art exhibitions as part of the cultural route.

Mustafa Tunçalp's "Life Shaped by Soil" exhibition is one of the must-see destinations as it is a tribute to the Battle of Çanakkale. "It is an honor for me to be in such a historical place," said Tunçalp. The installations, which mourn those who were martyred in the war with dark human shadows and figures, are also adorned with bird figures. While the bird draws attention to the artist's emphasis on freedom, it is also a symbolic starting point for his artistic works.

The "Fire of Anatolia" dance group, which is a unique dance project that reflects Anatolia’s ancient mythological and cultural history produced by Mustafa Erdoğan took the open-air stage. The performance drew a large crowd, with no space left along the coast of the bastion. Prepared under the inquiry of Rüstem Aslan, who is also the head of the Troy archaeological site excavations, the performance "Troy" mesmerized the viewers, taking the stage for the first time in its homeland, Çanakkale, where the story was born.

On the second day, "3 Tenors," state opera singers Murat Karahan, Efe Kışlalı and Levent Gündüz, took the stage, accompanied by the Mersin State Opera and Ballet Orchestra and versant conductor Serdar Yalçın, ranging from Neapolitans, classical opera arias to Turkish folk songs. The works performed by the orchestra and soloists in the program received enthusiastic applause from art lovers.

Çanakkale Fine Arts Exhibition

The "Silkworm Cocoon in Handled by Silky Hands Exhibition," organized by the Provincial Representative of the Women and Democracy Association (KADEM) within the scope of the Troy Cultural Road Festival event, featured works made from natural silk cocoons and lace ornaments dyed with natural elements such as tea and coffee. As the works that come out of the dowries of women, the exhibition has a great spiritual value, also highlighting concepts like zero-waste and sustainability.

Aynalı Çarşı (Mirrored Bazaar)

A covered market filled from one end to the other with shops, Aynalı Çarşı is one of the bazaars constructed by Jewish merchant Ilya Halyo with the permission of Abdulhamid II in 1890. The bazaar is also mentioned in one of the Turkish folk songs, revealing the great war tragedy in Çanakkale, which happened between 1915 and 1918.

This place of emotions and history witnessed a flashmob performed by the artists of Mersin State Opera and Ballet, covering the Turkish folk song as the deputy minister passed through the bazaar and the tones of the song echoed over the walls of this historical bazaar.

Museum exhibit in old church

The foundations of the Troy Museum were laid in the Armenian church located in Çanakkale Victory Square. Some 4,000 relics have been found in and around the church and are now on display at the museum. The museum's exhibitions feature documents and photographs as well as the youngest donator of the church, who was a fifth grade student named Necdet in the 1900s. It also details the story of the "broken glass incident" when a Jewish neighbor's son threw a stone through the church window and his father refused to pay the amount.

The acoustics of the place are great in terms of chorus performances and concerts. In that sense, it will host various concerts during the festival, and the most important of these will undoubtedly be the "Language of Beliefs" concert, which will include the tones of three monotheistic religions.

Mahal Art

The special project "Winged Words Layers" art exhibition is maybe the most interesting destination on the cultural road as the first time archaeologists that worked on the excavations of the Troy historical site contributed to the creation of an exhibition. Blending artistic creation and archaeological investigation, the exhibition features 11 different artists who used a variety of mediums such as installations, documentaries, paintings and video.

Most of the time, when we visit museums, we do not tend to think about what or who constitutes them. In fact, archaeologists are the architects of these huge cultural centers. In search of the human condition, archaeology and art open a space where the lines of science and craft are blurred.

In this context, one of the installations in the exhibition takes you to a world where you can create your own Troy interactively. The silhouette photographs showing "the most frequent body forms" revive the memory of the city and the intangible work behind the scenes and lead the spectators to historical reckoning.

On the other hand, Helin Boztepe's "Sand Land," an installation of a suitcase, is filled with archaeological archive documents and sand to refer to the dedication of mind, body and future "in what you are digging."

Reading 'Illiad' today

In addition to the Troy saga by Homeros, Troy Museum, which unveils all the richness of the history of humanity of 5,000 years ago, and despite being one of the youngest museums in Türkiye, succeeded in making an international impression and was deemed worthy of awards. It hosts several exhibitions, especially Alparsan Baloğlu's "Troya," as part of the culture road.

Baloğlu's installations, consisting of aphorisms, establish a historical link between the present and the past through a lightning globe in which you can say hello to Zeus or horseshoe traces in bare soil as a nod to the Trojan Horse.

The first installation with the aphorism "Was Zeus and the others both aftermath, the reason and the epithet of enunciation of a justification?" consists of rats placed on soil and refers to a story in Homer's "Iliad." Accordingly, the daughter of Apollo's priest was abducted by the commander Agamemnon. After wishing for his daughter's return from Apollo, the sun god sent the plague to Agamemnon's army with many rodents, which caused Apollo to be dubbed the "Lord of Mice."