Princes’ Islands – Adalar

The Princes’ Islands include Kınalı (Prote), Burgaz, (Antigone), Kaşık (Pitta, Spoon), Heybeli (Khalke), Büyük (Prinkipo), Yassı (Plati), Sedef (Terebnthos), tavşan (Nyandros), and Sivri (Oxia). In Byzantine times the Princes’ Islands were both a place of welcome retreat for monks and of miserable exiles for numerous members of the royal family. Each has had its monasteries, convents and churches; each has some bit of cruel or heroic Byzantine history associated with it. One of three Byzantine women who ruled in their own riht, the Empress Eirene in 802 was deposed and exiled on Büyükada; she had previously sen her granddaughter to the convent named for her….