Izmir Modern Life: Konak Square and the Clock Tower, Ataturk Museum at the Birthplace, Cultural Scene and Film Festivals, the Alsancak Bar and Restaurant District, Bornova University City, and Izmir Contemporary Identity
The Izmir modern life route covers the Konak Square civic centre and the historic Clock Tower, the Ataturk Museum at the Ataturk birthplace in Alsancak, the Izmir International Film Festival and cultural scene, the Alsancak bar and restaurant district evening life, the Bornova university city and student culture, and the contemporary Izmir identity as Turkey most progressive city.
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Konak Square: The Civic Heart of Izmir
Konak Square, the central civic space of Izmir with the Saat Kulesi clock tower of 1901, the Yali Mosque, the Konak pier and the ferry terminal, and the Kemeralti bazaar entrance, is the most historically layered urban square in the Aegean Turkey and the place where the Ataturk era transformation of the city from the cosmopolitan Ottoman port to the secular Turkish republic city is most physically evident in the transition from the Ottoman mosque and clock tower to the republican government buildings. The Konak evening ferry crossing to Karsiyaka is the most pleasant single urban transport experience in Izmir.
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Ataturk Museum: The Birthplace and the Life
The Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Museum in Izmir, located in the Alsancak house where Ataturk was born in 1881 and preserved as the most visited single cultural site in Izmir, provides the most personal encounter with the founder of the Turkish Republic with the preserved birth room, the childhood objects, and the photographic and documentary record of the Ataturk life from the Salonika childhood to the Gallipoli command to the Ankara republic. The Izmir connection to Ataturk is the most significant in Turkey after the Salonika birth city and the Ankara republic capital.
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Izmir Film Festival: The Cultural Season Highlight
The Izmir International Film Festival held each spring, the most established film festival in Turkey after the Antalya Golden Orange and the Istanbul Film Festival, brings the international art house cinema circuit to the Izmir cinemas and the outdoor screening venues for the 10-day program that attracts the Turkish film community and the international film culture visitors. The Izmir cultural scene, with the 3 major concert halls, the state opera and ballet company, the international theater festivals, and the contemporary art spaces, is the most active single-city cultural program in Turkey outside Istanbul.
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Alsancak: The Bar and Restaurant District
Alsancak, the neighborhood adjacent to the Kordon waterfront with the dense concentration of bars, fish restaurants, meyhane traditional taverns, and international cuisine restaurants in the streets behind the waterfront, is the most animated evening district in Izmir and the place where the Izmir social life is most completely expressed in the public space. The Kibris Sehitleri Caddesi, the main street of the Alsancak bar district, is the Turkish street most comparable to the Barcelona Las Ramblas or the Istanbul Istiklal in the diversity and the density of the evening public life.
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Bornova: The University City District
Bornova, the university district of Izmir with the Ege University and the Dokuz Eylul University campuses and the student population of 80,000, is the most intellectually active district of Izmir and the neighbourhood where the independent bookshops, the alternative cinema, the student bars, and the political debate culture that characterizes the Izmir progressive identity is most concentrated. The Bornova night market on Wednesdays is the most eclectic weekly market in Izmir with the secondhand books, the vintage clothing, the handmade crafts, and the food stalls that the student population supports.
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Izmir Contemporary Identity: Turkey Most Progressive City
Izmir, consistently polling as the Turkish city where the residents are most satisfied with the quality of life, the most supportive of the secular government model, and the most tolerant of the social diversity, is the city that represents the alternative to the Islamic conservative social model that the AKP government promotes at the national level. The Izmir identity - the Kordon wine bar culture, the openly LGBT-supportive social environment, the women in sleeveless shirts, and the Friday night fish restaurants - is the Turkish Mediterranean liberal lifestyle that the secular Republic tradition produced and that the Izmir population defends most consistently.