The History of Giresun

Giresun is situated on the northeast of Anatolia and is one of the picturesque towns of the Black sea region’s where the green and the blue meet together. The only island of the Black Sea called Giresun Island (Aretias) is situated right across the peninsula and it resembles a necklace of the city almost. The name Giresun is derived from the city’s ancient name “Kerasus “. There are two different speculations about the source of the name. The first one is that it derives from the cherries that are produced in vast sums in Kerasus and the second one is that the name is derived from the word “ Kerastan “ which means horn in ancient Greek because the peninsula continues towards the sea resembling a horn. The city’s present name has been in use since the Turkish sovereignty.

The reason as to why the city was established and who lived in it is open to speculations. This is due to the writings of Ksenofos in the BC 350 that created doubts in the 19th century as to where the city was first built. He had mentioned that they arrived to Kerasus from Trabzon in 3 days and this proves that he had actually pointed out the place known as Kreson/Kirazlik in the Vakfikebir bay. Geographer Strebon has mentioned that the city called Farnaika was actually built on the same place where today’s city of Giresun is found. The Roman authority Arrien pointed out in his writings that Farnaika’s old name was Kerasus and actually the city was built by the people of Sinop. All these findings have resulted in the researchers indicating that the Pontus King Farnakies who seized Sinop in BC 183 built a fortress named Farnaika in the peninsula where Giresun is situated today and that this place was later called Kerasus.

Culture

The province of Giresun composed of historical richness due to its ancient civilizations is as culturally intriguing as historically. It is not always possible to see the remains of civilizations such as from the Amazon’s to the Byzantine, from the Caucasus to Anatolia, from the Seljuk’s to the Ottoman, that have left their significant marks in our world. Giresun has made important contributions to the Turkish culture whether it was during the Seljuk and Ottoman period or the Republican period. However its mountainous geographical position and at the same time its very steep angle of inclination proved to be halting in means of transportation. And this resulted in its cultural values not receiving the credit it very much deserved in the other parts of the country. The same geographical reasons led to a system of “scattered housing”“ in its settlement times. The people who were all farmers cultivated the land they thought suitable and built their houses not in accordance with neighbours but in close proximity to their lands. This resulted in people having distant relations with those around them. As a result the dialects of the people living in different towns or even in villages close by have turned out to be very different from one another. The traditions observed in the villages are mostly practiced in the cities as well because most of them living in the city have a continuing affinity with those in the villages. This means that in our cities and smaller towns there is mostly an image of half city, half village.