Historical castle to become holiday village in Aegean province

İZMİR - Anadolu Agency

The houses in Seferihisar’s Sığacık Castle will be restored and one room in each house will open to tourism. The area will turn into a holiday village. AA photo

The 500-year-old historical Sığacık Castle in Turkey’s first “slow city,” Seferihisar, will be made into a holiday village as the 284 houses in the castle are restored and opened to tourism. According to a statement made by the Seferihisar Municipality, the project is being jointly carried out by the İzmir Governor’s Office, İzmir Municipality and Seferihisar Municipality.

Seferihisar Mayor Tunç Soyer said the new system would support the locals in the region operating the boarding house. He said the 284 houses in Sığacık Castle had not been maintained for years since they are in a protected area, adding that they had first prepared the restoration project then gotten the approval of the Council of Monuments and financing.

“We will turn the 284 houses into a holiday village. We plan to open at least one room of each house to tourism. One room has a capacity of two beds and the area will become a holiday village with a 600-bed capacity. We will also organize tourism service programs for the owners of the houses, and 1,500 locals living around the castle will work as tourism personnel. It will be a real holiday village that is very different from existing ones.”