History

While Lopadion is first mentioned by name in the early ninth century, its earlier history is uncertain. The site of Lopadion had a long history, owing to its location on the Ryndakos River, the western border of Bithynia in the Roman era. It may have been known as Miletouteichos in the classical era. The strategic importance of the site first appears when the Romans defeated Mithridates VI on the banks of the Ryndakos in 73 BC. The Ryndakos River also flooded in 257/58 AD, preventing the Goths, who had invaded Bithynia, from also plundering Kyzikos. While not named, the route depicted on the Tabula Peutingeriana indicates there was a bridge at Lopadion in Late Antiquity. Arab sources mention Lopadion by name, with it appearing in the tenth-century geography of Al-Masudi and in the twelfth-century itineraries of al-Idrisi.

Lopadion first appears in the early-ninth-century letters of Theodoros Stoudites, who writes about its xenodocheion (an imperial “inn” or guest house for travelers) and its bath. Evidence from lead seals of Byzantine officials suggests that the settlement here grew in importance in the following centuries. There are two ninth-century seals with the title of the xenodochos (director of a xenodocheion). Other seals have other imperial official titles, such as spatharios and possibly kommerkiarios (fiscal official), which would indicate its importance as a port. An eleventh-century seal has the title of archon (local magistrate), further illustrating its growing importance. During this period, Lopadion was situated in the theme of Opsikion.

The Byzantines lost Lopadion by 1081, around the time Nicaea came under Seljuk control. Because of its strategic location on the Byzantine-Seljuk frontier, Lopadion appears frequently in sources during the Komnenian era. In 1086, the Seljuk commander Elkhanes captured Apollonias and Kyzikos (though Lopadion is not named directly). The bridge at Lopadion is mentioned when the Seljuk commander Elkhanes ambushed the troops of the Byzantine general Alexandros Euphorbenos after an unsuccessful siege of Apollonias in 1086. Upon taking the outer walls of Apollonias, Euphorbenos was forced to retreat because of the arrival of a large relief force and suffered a heavy defeat while trying to retreat across the river.

Shortly after this defeat, the Byzantine general Constantine Opos defeated Elkhanes, capturing Kyzikos and then Apollonias. During a major Seljuk attack in 1113, a large Seljuk army under the command of Monolykos plundered the area of Lopadion and sacked Kyzikos. In 1116, Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118) organized the defense against a Seljuk attack from Ikonion (Konya), establishing camps and defensive positions (including at Lopadion). He defeated a small force of Turks at Poimanenon before returning to his base at Lopadion. Lopadion seems to have been his headquarters over the hot summer period, due in part to a shortage of water.

In 1134, John II Komnenos (1118-1143) attacked the Seljuks at the citadel of Gangra, but was repulsed and forced to retreat to Lopadion, where he spent the winter. In his campaign the following year, he first successfully attacked Kastamon and then captured Gangra. John returned to Lopadion after repelling a Turkish incursion into the region of the Sangarios River in 1139. He also gathered his forces there before his campaign against the rebel Konstantinos Gabras of Trebizond in 1140. Lopadion was again his base in 1141 against renewed Turkish raids.

Byzantine sources report that the fortress of Lopadion was built by John II. No date is given, but it may have been constructed around 1130. However, it has been proposed that previous Seljuk attacks on Lopadion and Kyzikos in 1113 required its rebuilding, though the sources do not state this. Regardless, the repeated mentions of Lopadion indicated its centrality to a network of fortifications along the roads, rivers, and coasts of Anatolia, expanding and improving the fortifications built by his father Alexios I. Theodoros Prodromos, a poet at the court of John II, celebrates the strength of Lopadion in his poem about a journey there with the emperor (perhaps dating to 1139).

In 1147, Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (1143-1180) was in Lopadion, apparently preparing for a new campaign against the Seljuks. However, he concluded a peace treaty with Sultan Mas’ud because of the shared threat posed by the approaching armies of the Second Crusade. After the German army retreated from its disastrous march towards Doryleion in 1147, Conrad III of Germany joined the French king Louis VII at Lupar [Lopadion], and then moved south along the coast towards Ephesus.

After the accession of Andronikos I Komnenos in 1184, a rebellion broke out in Anatolia, centered on Nicaea and Prousa (Bursa). The rebels called in the Turks to aid them and put up a very determined struggle. The inhabitants of Lopadion joined the revolt, though it was quickly captured by the Byzantine general Alexios Branas. Once the rebellion was crushed, Lopadion was subjected to severe reprisals, with its bishop being blinded.

During the Komnenian era, Lopadion grew increasingly important, as it functioned as a key military base and at times even an imperial residence. Its location on the Ryndakos and along the main east-west road made it a major base of operations at the regional crossroads. Lopadion was close to the frontier and could easily receive dispatches from Constantinople and the rest of the empire by river when the emperor resided there. It has also been argued that during this period fortified towns like Lopadion functioned as aplekta (supply camps) or fortified camps. While John regularly used Lopadion as a training base and assembly point for his troops, Lopadion was certainly more than just a military base; it was also a proper town or even a small city that could also support the imperial court. Fortresses like Lopadion probably played a role in restoring the agricultural prosperity of the region as well. By the end of the twelfth century, Lopadion also had its own bishop, first appearing on the synodal register as a metropolitan see in 1178.

Despite the First Crusade’s success in restoring much territory to Byzantium (most crucially at Nicaea in 1097), Seljuk raiding forces continued to appear as far as the Bosphorus. Though the emperors Alexios, John, and Manuel Komnenos had numerous victories against the Seljuks and continued to expand the fortification system, Byzantine Anatolia continued to be vulnerable as seen in the losses suffered by the armies of the Second Crusade in 1147. It could be argued, though, the Komnenian attempts to restore power in Anatolia would allow for the relative successes of the Empire of Nicaea in the thirteenth century.

Following the capture of Constantinople in 1204, the French knight Pierre de Bracieux conquered Pegai and Lopadion for the Latin Empire, defeating Theodore I Laskaris at Poimanenon. He failed, though, when he attempted to conquer Prousa (Bursa). By 1205, the Latins had taken control of much of northwestern Anatolia, weakening the position of Theodore Laskaris (despite his control of Prousa and Nicaea). This position soon reversed, as the Latin emperor Baldwin had to relinquish most of Anatolia when the Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan incited the Byzantines in Thrace to revolt. Baldwin’s forces were sent to defend Adrianople, where he was defeated and captured by Kaloyan later that year. In 1211, Theodoros Laskaris was again defeated by the Latins on the Ryndakos plain near Lopadion. In 1214, Theodore concluded a treaty at Nymphaion with Latin emperor Henry of Flanders, which recognized Byzantine control of Lopadion.

The Patriarch Arsenios Autoreianos passed through Lopadion after Michael VIII Palaiologos (1259-1282) was proclaimed emperor at Nymphaion in 1259. At the Second Council of Lyon in 1274, the emperor and many Orthodox clergy (including the metropolitans or archbishops of Lopadion, Nicaea, and Prousa) formally entered into union with the Catholic Church. Several other sources mention the archbishops of Lopadion in the thirteenth century, though the last mention of its archbishop is in the mid-fourteenth century. Following his third campaign to secure the Sangarios border in 1282, Michael VIII went to Lopadion, where he made plans to fortify the border regions to the south. These plans, though, were apparently never completed, because John II Komnenos of Trebizond visited Michael at Lopadion later that year, and they then traveled together to Constantinople by ship. In 1290, Andronikos II Palaiologos embarked on a three-year tour of his provinces in Anatolia, inspecting the defenses of Nicaea, Prousa, and Lopadion, during which time his headquarters were at Nymphaion.

Osman, the founder of the Ottoman dynasty, defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Bapheus in 1302, allowing his forces to sweep westward and ravage the countryside from Nicaea to Kyzikos, even as far as Adramyttion. Only fortified cities, such as Nicaea, Prousa, and Lopadion, remained under Byzantine control, though they were isolated from each other.

After the War of the Sicilian Vespers came to an end, the commander of the Catalan Company, Roger de Flor, arrived in Constantinople and offered his services to Andronikos II Palaiologos (1282-1328) in 1303. After wintering in Kyzikos, Roger mounted a successful campaign against the Turks in the region, though he was recalled after Catalans looted local Byzantine populations. Roger then seized control of Kallipolis (Gelibolu) and made it his base of operations. In the spring of 1305, Roger de Flor sent part of his forces from Kallipolis to Kyzikos, Pegai (Karabiga), and Lopadion. Atares, an unidentified Turkish commander, attacked Lopadion, which was defended by its Byzantine commander Makrenos, 120 Catalans, and a few Byzantine soldiers. Makrenos imprisoned half of the Catalans on suspicion of treasonous activities, while sending the rest to aid a nearby fortified town that was under siege. In the end, the Catalans betrayed the town to the Turks, joining in the attack, capturing and killing its defenders, in exchange for the promise to cover their retreat.

When the Ottoman ruler Orhan captured Prousa (Bursa) in 1326, it had been besieged and suffering from deprivation for some time. Cut off from the Byzantine world for many years, it had already been paying tribute to the Ottomans for at least fifteen years. After its capture, he buried his father Osman, who died besieging the city, within its walls, and he made it his capital. The following year, Lopadion finally fell to the Ottomans after its walls were damaged by an earthquake. These conquests took place during the civil war between Andronikos II and his grandson Andronikos III from 1320-1328.

Early Ottoman sources attest to the continued importance of Ulubad, as Lopadion was also known. A key building from the period is Issızhan, a commercial center located around 3.5 km northeast of Lopadion. Its construction in the late fourteenth century indicates the continued importance of the bridge and the related road network. Ulubad was a key site in two Early Ottoman civil wars. The death of Bayezid I a year after his defeat at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 led to a period of civil war between his sons. One battle of the civil war took place at Ulubad in 1403, where Mehmed defeated İsa, allowing Mehmed to take control of Bursa. In 1422, Byzantine-backed pretender Mustafa gathered a large army to attack Sultan Murad II at Bursa. Murad rushed to Lopadion and ordered that the bridge there be dismantled. The advance of Mustafa was then stopped, and later some forces deserted him, leading him to retreat. According to legend, Ulubatlı Hasan (who came from Ulubad) was the first to raise an Ottoman standard on the walls of Constantinople during the siege of 1453.

Some information about Lopadion's trade and economy is available for the Late Byzantine and Early Ottoman eras. In a chrysobull of 1287, Andronikos II confirmed the properties of the Theometor Monastery, including mills probably near Lopadion, thus attesting to grain cultivation in the area. By the Ottoman era, the trade of alum (used to make textile dyes) was largely dominated by the Genoese. While the main producing regions of alum were Kütahya and Foça, Lopadion also produced smaller quantities. Alum from Lopadion and the surrounding area was first exported to Trigleia (Tirilye/Bursa), and then sold at Constantinople, Pera, and even Bruges. The exact location of these mines, though, is unknown. Lopadion also appeared in late medieval and early modern portolan charts, using a wide variety of spellings (e.g., Lupari, Lupate, Lupay, etc.). Some maps show a river mouth (thus depicting the Ryndakos at the Marmara coast); at times, they appear to incorrectly depict two river mouths.

In 1576, a German account of a visit to the town records several churches, including the largest one dedicated to the Panagia (Virgin Mary). In the late nineteenth century, it was populated by Greek families, with a Circassian settlement outside the walls. Of the two known churches from the Late Ottoman era, only one church partially survives; dedicated to St. Michael, its inscription records that it was completely rebuilt in 1847. There is Byzantine spolia in the base of the old mosque’s minaret. Heavily reconstructed later, the mosque (now known as Valide Sultan Camii) was built in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century.