Turkey · İstanbul
Where to Stay in Silivri, İstanbul
Silivri, once Selymbria, spreads along the Sea of Marmara outside the urban core of İstanbul, a district of weekend homes and old churches.
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Where to stay in Silivri
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The town of Silivri is the obvious base. It is the largest settlement in the district, it holds Selymbria Castle and the Fatih Mosque, and it is the one place here with the ordinary business of a town rather than the seasonal quiet of a holiday coast. Selymbria Castle marks the older core of the town, and the Agios Spyridon Church and the Silivri Fener (Fanari) Kilisesi are within the same reach.
Everything else is scattered. Silivri covers a great deal of ground along the Sea of Marmara, so a room in one village leaves the rest of the district a drive away. Selimpaşa and Fenerköy are the alternatives.
The Selimpaşa Tarihi Eski Camii stands in the first and the Kilise Müştemilatı in the second, and both settlements sit within the same district as Silivri town without sharing its size or its shops. Beds run out quickly off the coast. If you want the museums and the monuments of the city, sleep inside the urban core of İstanbul instead, because Silivri is where people from that city come to leave it behind for a weekend. Turkey keeps both inside İstanbul Province.
About Silivri
Weekend homes fill it.
What is Silivri known for?
Silivri lies along the Sea of Marmara beyond the urban core of İstanbul, and the holiday houses that people from the city keep here set the rhythm of the district more than any single monument does. Selymbria Castle is the exception. The old name of the town survives in that castle, and the district's largest settlement carries the district's own name.
What are the main landmarks in Silivri?
Selymbria Castle carries the town's older name. Churches and mosques account for the rest: the Germiyan Church, the Agios Spyridon Church, the Hosia (Azize) Paraskevi Kilisesi, the Silivri Fener (Fanari) Kilisesi and the Kilise Müştemilatı at Fenerköy on one side, the Fatih Mosque, the Seymen Old Mosque, the Ortaköy Tarihi Camii and the Selimpaşa Tarihi Eski Camii on the other. Nothing is concentrated.
The district spreads far enough along the Sea of Marmara that seeing them all means covering most of it.
What is the history of Silivri?
Silivri was Selymbria. The older name survives in Selymbria Castle, which belongs to a settlement on the Sea of Marmara whose beginnings carry no date in the public record, and the district has never traded that continuity for a founding year. Greek Orthodox churches record one long stratum of that occupation: the Agios Spyridon Church, the Hosia (Azize) Paraskevi Kilisesi, the Germiyan Church and the Silivri Fener (Fanari) Kilisesi, with the Kilise Müştemilatı surviving at Fenerköy.
Mosques mark the next. The Seymen Old Mosque, the Ortaköy Tarihi Camii, the Selimpaşa Tarihi Eski Camii and the Fatih Mosque are spread across the same district. Modern Silivri answers to İstanbul.
The district and municipality belong to İstanbul Province, and the largest settlement inside them is also called Silivri, which keeps the name of Selymbria attached to a working town rather than to a ruin. Distance from the city changed its use. Lying outside the urban core, the district filled with holiday and weekend homes belonging to people from İstanbul, which is what most of the coast here is given over to.
Turkey lists it as one district among many. Selymbria Castle, the Germiyan Church and the mosques of the villages are what remain of everything that came before the weekend traffic.
Where is Silivri?
Silivri is big. The district runs along the Sea of Marmara well beyond the urban core of İstanbul, taking in the town of Silivri along with Selimpaşa, Fenerköy and the other settlements that carry their own mosques and churches. The settlements stand apart from each other.
That is the difference between this district and the built-up ones nearer İstanbul Province's centre, and it is why the coast here reads as a string of places rather than one continuous front.
What is the climate of Silivri?
The Sea of Marmara runs the seasons here. Silivri takes the whole of its southern edge from that water, which is why the holiday houses fill in summer and why the winter months are milder along the shore than they are on the ground behind it. Wind comes off the Marmara.
Selymbria Castle and the Silivri Fener (Fanari) Kilisesi have stood through a lot of it.
How do you get to Silivri?
Silivri is a run out of the city. The district lies along the Sea of Marmara outside the urban core of İstanbul, so getting here means following the Marmara coast out until the built-up districts give out and the holiday houses begin. The town of Silivri holds the district's own centre.
Selimpaşa, Fenerköy and the villages around them need their own leg, since the Selimpaşa Tarihi Eski Camii and the Kilise Müştemilatı are not within a walk of Selymbria Castle.
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Updated August 2026