1. Site

The coastal settlement of Zonguldak is located at the Black Sea. The settlement is crossed by the river Üzülmez dere. It lies in a distance of 165 klm. west of Kastamonu, 77 klm. NW of Safranbolu and 82 klm. N-NE of Bolu.

2. Administrative division

We have no information for the administrative dependence of the settlement of Zonguldak from the time of the Ottoman conquest until the 19^th century.

In 1867 Zonguldak belonged to the kaza of Safranbolu and successively to the sancak and the vilayet of Kastamonu. Later it became a part of the sancak of Bolu as the seat of a nahiye of the kaza of Ereğli. In 1899 it became the seat of the kaza of Zonguldak which belonged to the sancak of Bolu of the vilayet of Kastamonu. This kaza was comprised of 70 villages.¹

In the 20^th century the settlement of Zonguldak was the seat of a kaymakalık, which belonged to the mutasarrıflık of Bolu and the vilayet of Kastamonu.

3. History

In 1460 the area of Zonguldak was conquered by Mehmed II. From the 15^th until the 19^th century there is no information concerning the history of Zonguldak. We only know that in the 19^th century it was a small village. Towards the end of the 19^th century, thanks to the exploitation of the coalmines, Zonguldak’s structure started changing. The exploitation of the rich coal deposits was undertaken by a French company in 1890. Later, in 1897, the same company built the harbour of Zonguldak. Thus a migration flow towards the city started due to the need for work until the beginning of the 20^th century. The financial development and the increase of the population caused the old village to evolve into a small town. Under these circumstances in 1899 the administrative position of Zonguldak was upgraded and the small city became the seat of a kaza. In World War I it was bombed by the Russian forces. The landing of the Greek army in Smyrna caused an uproar, which resulted in victims amongst the Orthodox Greeks of the settlement. In March of 1920 Zonguldak was abandoned by the French. Later on 19^th June 1920 it was conquered by the Turkish forces.² In the spring of 1921 the “exile” of the Greek men who were 16 to 50 years old started. Later the Greek population abandoned the settlement and via Constantinople reached Greece.

4. Demography

During the 19^th century, with the start of work in the coalmines of Zonguldak workers from other places arrived to work in them. Already since 1880 there were coalminers from Montenegro who dwelled in 15 houses. Later 4-5 families from Pontoherakleia arrived and settled there. According to the Ottoman census of 1905 there were 250 houses in Zonguldak.³

Most of the inhabitants were Muslims and the smallest population group was the Jewish numbering one or two families. According to the Archive of the Centre of Asia Minor Studies, the number of Orthodox inhabitants reached the number of 200-300 families. The orthodox dwelled in a mixed quarter named Soğuk Su (Cold Water). The Armenian inhabitants were approximately 300 families. 50-100 French families lived near the harbour.⁴ Kondogiannes, finally, reports that there were 2,000 Greek inhabitants in Zonguldak.⁵

The Orthodox citizens of Zonguldak came from various regions, Pontoherakleia, Kozlu, Hili, Kerasounta, Oinoi, Partheni (Partin), Safranbolu, Çay Cuma, Samsun, Mytilene, the Dodecanese, Thrace and Sinop. There were also many Caramanlis from Caesarea. Settlers from Montenegro were orthodox and spoke Greek, thus later they were assimilated with the Greek orthodox people of the settlement.

The language of the orthodox inhabitants of the city was Turkish. Few of them spoke Greek, mainly those who had come from Greece or the islands. After Turkish, English was the language most spoken in the city. The Greek language started diffusing after the foundation of a Greek school.

5. Urban structure

There is no information concerning the structure of the settlement in the time of the Ottoman conquest until the 20^th century.

According to the Ottoman census of 1905 in Zonguldak there was a mosque, two churches, a hospital, a post office, three inns, 120 shops, five hotels, four small factories and 250 houses.⁶ Muslims and Christians lived in mixed quarters. Only the French lived in a separate quarter. The French quarter was near the harbour. Their Catholic church was at the centre of the settlement and their school inside their quarter. A road divided the settlement from the coast. This was the central road of Zonguldak. Zonguldak western part was the most densely populated. Most of the city’s houses had two storeys and were mainly stone-built. The French houses had one storey and gardens.

6. Economy

The era of the financial bloom of the little village Zonguldak began in 1848 after the issuing of a licence of operation for the coalmines by Abdul Mecid.⁷ Mines gave life to Zonguldak thanks to the migration of the miners to the place. The population of the settlement was increased resulting in the opening of merchant and other shops to serve the inhabitants. In 1882 the rights for the exploitation of the mines were sold and in 1890 the French company which undertook their exploitation was settled there until World War I, when the Ottoman state ceded the exploitation of the mines to its German allies.

The most important export of Zonguldak during the 19^th and 20^th century was coal. From all the mines of the region quantities of coal were transported to the city and from there it was exported to other regions of the Ottoman Empire or to Europe. The transportation of coal was made by train and from there it was transported to the harbour where it was loaded on ships. In the factories inside the city coals were divided into four categories according to their quality and were accordingly loaded. Apart from the coals of the area of Zonguldak other products such as grain, corn, wheat, barley, vetch-pea, lentils, beans, horse beans, potatoes, chick-peas, tobacco, cannabis and Indian cannabis which came from the surrounding area, were exported.⁸

In the settlement there was no regular market and the products from the surrounding villages were usually ordered. The most important products came to Zonguldak from Constantinople. The trade was in the hands of the orthodox Greek-speaking and the Armenians. Many Greek-speaking orthodox citizens operated merchant shops. Almost all the Muslim inhabitants worked at the mines and few of them had shops.

7. Administration

From 1899, after an administrative upgrade, Zonguldak was governed by a kaymakam. In 1918 the kaymakam of Zonguldak was an orthodox Christian.⁹ We have no information about the activity of the orthodox community, but the structure of its administration was no different than that of other cities where there was an orthodox community. The representative of the orthodox community was called muhtar and was responsible for the community against the authorities. The elders of the settlement were elected. A church and a school commission operated in the settlement.

In the 20^th century there was a town hall and the city’s mayor was a Muslim. His advisers were one person from each community, i.e. a Russian, an Armenian and a Muslim.

8. Church

The Orthodox Church was dedicated to Saint Nikolaos and was located on the coast. It is unknown when it was built. The church was stone-built and had a bell tower. Its floor was paved with marble. Saint Nikolaos was destroyed during World War I by the Russian bombardment. Later it was built again by the material of the destroyed building. A priest held mass at the church.

Ecclesiastically it belonged to the metropolis of Chalkedon. The title of the metropolitan was “Reverent and supreme of the whole Bithynia”. The seat of the metropolis was at Chalkedon. Once every year the metropolitan visited the city and the rest of the year he was represented by a church commission. Apart from the church of the orthodox there were two more churches, which belonged to the Armenians and the catholic French inhabitants of Zonguldak. The other temples were smaller compared to the orthodox one. The church of the catholic was obviously built after 1905 since it is not documented in the state census of the sanjak during the same year.

9. Schools

In the 20^th century a mixed elementary school for the orthodox inhabitants of Zonguldak operated. We have no information about the year the school was founded. It was a six-class school. Three male and one female teacher taught there. They all came from Greece. The building of the elementary school had two storeys and was located near the church, in a distance of approximately 500 m. The school commission was responsible for the teachers’ salaries and the maintenance of the school.

Since 1903 the French inhabitants of the settlement maintained a school where French missionaries taught.¹⁰ Many orthodox citizens sent their children to that school.