Burgazada / Antigoni / Αντιγόνη
- sophiafaaland
- May 5
- 4 min read
Burgazada, or Antigoni (Αντιγόνη) in Greek, is an island included in the Princes’ Islands archipelago of the Marmara Sea, west of Heybeliada. Burgazada remains the third largest island of the archipelago. At first, the island was named Panormos, or “sheltering harbor” during the Byzantine period. Afterwards, the island became known as “Antigoni,” named after a general of Alexander the Great. The Turkish name, Burgazada, refers to the pre-Byzantine tower on the island.
Since the Byzantine period (circa 330 to 1453), Greek people have occupied the island working as fishermen and seafarers. In the ninth century, Emperor Michael I removed Patriarch and saint Methodius from his post in Constantinople and exiled him to Burgazada in a stone chamber. There, he endured torture and imprisonment for roughly a decade. After Emperor Michael I died, Emperor Theophilus and his wife, Theodora, released Patriarch Methodius and built the church dedicated to St. John the Baptist over the stone chamber.
St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church / St. Ioannis Prodromos (Άγιος Ιωάννης Ποδρόμος)
The St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church was built in the Byzantine period from 829 to 842, and it is part of the Holy Metropolis of Derkoi. The structure underwent reconstruction several times in 1759, 1817, and 1896 as a result of the Great Istanbul Earthquake.
The interior structure of the church includes a nave dedicated to Ayios Ioannis, and two other sections dedicated to Hagia Paraskevi and Hagios Ayazoni. The church also includes a decadent iconostasis.
In the nineteenth century, Burgazada became a resort for elites and travelers of the Ottoman Empire including British and French people. After the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, many Greek people living on the island left Burgazada due to rising nationalism and hostility towards Greeks throughout Istanbul.
Greek Orthodox Cemetery
The Greek Orthodox cemetery of Burgazada is located on top of the island’s hill near the Greek Orthodox church. Cypress and pine trees surround the cemetery. Some figures buried in the cemetery include Hristo Kartal, Panayot Stilyanopulos, and Ioannis Nikolaci. Along with Greek Orthodox people, Catholic and Austrian people are buried in the cemetery indicating an intimate relationship among these different communities.
Greek Primary School
Patriarch Konstandios opened the oldest Greek primary school in Burgazada in 1835. At first, the primary school used the Allilodidaktiki (Αλληλοδιδακτική) System in which older students taught younger ones. This single school for the children of Burgazada existed until the 1880s when a kindergarten, boys, and girls school separately established due to the island’s growing population. The 1894 Istanbul Earthquake damaged many buildings across the island and caused students at the schools to continue their learning in temporary buildings for little over a decade. Finally, in 1905 Maria Haciluka donated funds to reconstruct schools for the children of Burgazada. In 1909, the total population included two teachers and fifty students at the boy’s school, and two teachers and forty-five students at the girl’s school.
In the Republic period, the schools combined and became one coeducational school due to the population decrease across the island. From 1925 to 1926, the school population included thirty-one boys and twenty-nine girls. A register of school’s enrolled students from this year records information on each student’s birthplace and the occupation of their father. For example, Paraskevi Zisopulu was a Greek Orthodox person born on Antigoni whose father was a barber. More broadly, the school instructed fifty-four Orthodox Greeks and six Muslim Turks. Across the register, the majority of fathers were fishermen or grocers.
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