Where to Stay in Giresun

What is Giresun known for?

On a green headland below the steep Pontic mountains, it was the ancient Kerasus that gave the cherry its name, and it keeps a castle on the cape, the only island of the Black Sea just offshore, and hillsides of hazelnut groves running up to the peaks. The sea breaks below the cape. Green orchards climb the slopes.

What are the main landmarks in Giresun?

The castle crowns the cape above Giresun. The old fortress on its green headland, holding the tomb of a local hero within its walls, looks out over the sea, the emblem of the town, above the harbour. An island lies offshore.

The lone Giresun Island rises from the sea off the point, once sacred in ancient myth, while the old churches, the castle park, and the hazelnut market mark the streets of Giresun.

What is the history of Giresun?

Giresun was the ancient Kerasus of the Greeks. Colonists from the Greek world settled this cape on the Black Sea in the old days, and it was from here, the story goes, that a Roman general first carried the cherry west to Rome, giving the fruit the town's own name. The cherry took its name.

The Latin word for cherry still echoes the old name of Giresun, Kerasus on its green cape. Greeks, Pontic kings, and Ottomans held the coast in turn. The town passed through many hands down the centuries, keeping its castle on the headland and its harbour below, and the myth of its island, once sacred to the war-god and the Amazons, clung to the offshore rock.

Nuts made it rich in the end. In modern times Giresun grew as the great market of the hazelnut, whose groves cover the hills for miles, and its port shipped the harvest across the sea. The orchards still climb the slopes.

Giresun keeps its castle and its island on the Black Sea.

Where is Giresun?

Giresun lies on the Black Sea coast of northern Turkey, on a cape where the Pontic mountains fall to the shore. The town spreads over a green headland and the slopes behind, with hazelnut groves rising to the ridges and the little Giresun Island lying just off the point. Steep green mountains rise inland.

The dark sea stretches to the north.

What is the climate of Giresun?

Giresun has a mild, very wet Black Sea climate. Warm summers and cool winters cross the coast, with rain through every season off the sea, keeping the mountains deep green. Clouds hang low on the peaks.

The orchards stay lush year round.

How do you get to Giresun?

Giresun lies on the eastern Black Sea coast of Turkey, on the shore road between Ordu and Trabzon. The coast highway runs to it along the sea from both cities, and a nearby airport links the capital. Mountain roads climb inland to the highland pastures.

Trabzon lies east along the coast.