Yaylacık Neighborhood, which is located in the oldest residential area of Buca, was known as Yukarı Neighborhood in the past. As a result of the Population Exchange Agreement within the framework of the Treaty of Lausanne, nearly 2 million people were displaced and afterwards the village established in Buca by the exchanged families who came to Buca from Thessaloniki in 1922 was named Yaylacık Neighborhood.
Residents of the village, which was founded in Buca, named it as Yaylacık Neighborhood, where displaced families from Thessaloniki created a different culture by bringing their architectural and social lives they had in Thessaloniki.
A part of this old settlement, which was divided into two in the past, including the Yaylacık Neighborhood, called the Aşağı Neighborhood, was the Buca Dumlupınar Neighborhood, which is also the oldest district of Buca. The area known as Yukarı Neighborhood was Yaylacık Neighborhood. Although Dumlupınar Neighborhood is accepted as a protected area due to its historical texture, the same expectation is expected for Buca Yaylacık Neighborhood.
It is known that there are more than 60 buildings from the 1800s and later in Yaylacık Neighborhood, a region where Greek families lived in the population exchange period. Yaylacık Neighborhood, mostly founded by Thessaloniki Emigrants, resembles Yaylacık Neighborhood in Thessaloniki almost exactly in terms of architectural style. It can be said that Yaylacık Neighborhood was actually formed by the people living in Thessaloniki Yaylacık Village, who brought their culture there.
If we come to the architectural difference in Yaylacık Neighborhood, these may be bricks and sitting areas built in front of the first houses. In the typical Yaylacık houses of Buca Yaylacık Neighborhood, which consists of a single floor above ground, a brickwork with an oval shape on the exterior and a concrete rest bench immediately against the wall.
These sitting areas, especially for those who are tired on the road, are found in almost every typical Yaylacık house. This architectural style, which is unique to Yaylacık Neighborhood, has an aesthetic side as well as being functional. The living areas and walls covered with tile-like materials are also unique to Yaylacık Neighborhood.
Handcrafted numbers are used for door numbers in Yaylacık houses, where houses have courtyards in the back. Unfortunately, the fact that Yaylacık District is so unique in İzmir does not make it valuable enough. With the urban transformation, houses in Yaylacık Neighborhood were demolished one by one and only a few houses that could preserve their culture remained. With the demolition of single-storey houses and the construction of higher-rise buildings in their place, it is expected that Yaylacık Neighborhood will be taken under protection with a site decision that will be similar to Dumlupınar Neighborhood.
Although Yaylacık Neighborhood, whose history goes back to the beginning of the 1700s before the population exchange, was founded by the Greeks, it became the first Muslim neighborhood established in the region with people who came after the population exchange. Unfortunately, the history of Yaylacık Neighborhood, which is not under protection, is disappearing with each passing day.
Where is Yaylacık Neighborhood, Buca? 📍
How to get to Yaylacık Neighborhood? 🚖
🚌 Bus: It can be reached to Buca Yaylacık Neighborhood after a 5-minute walk by getting off at Buca Heykel bus stop with ESHOT buses numbered 104, 206, 304, 470, 476, 490, 515, 676, 805 and 940.
