Things to do
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Bozcaada Castle
A fortress on the site of an older castle razed after the War of Chioggia, rebuilt by Mehmed II in 1455 and renewed after the Ottomans took it back from Venice in 1657. It stands within walking distance of the ferry harbour, with cisterns, an arsenal, a mosque and a well inside and a long moat to the south. The ramparts look back at the town and out at the strait.
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Bozcaada Clock Tower
A bell tower of the Church of the Virgin Mary, the Meryem Ana, which became the island's clock tower when a clock was fitted in 1897. At 28 metres it rises clear of the low rooftops of the Greek quarter, with the church it was built for still standing beneath it.
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Polente Lighthouse
A lighthouse of 1861, built by the French-born Michel Pasha on the cape at the island's western end, standing on bare rock among the wind turbines. The tower is 20 metres high and its light sits 32 metres above the sea. It is the point to drive to at the end of the day, for the sunset over open water.
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Ayazma Beach
The island's leading beach on the south coast, a wide arc of sand backed by pine, with a monastery spring behind it that gives it its name. Restaurants and cafés line it, it is the one beach on the island with facilities, and Sulubahçe and Habbele beaches lie next along the shore.
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Rengigül Konukevi
A guesthouse in the Greek quarter built around a painted courtyard garden, run by an artist and furnished from the island. It has a handful of rooms and no sea view. The quarter around it was rebuilt on a grid after a fire of 1874 and holds most of the town's galleries, businesses and small hotels.
