Nars Ilıca provides a fine self-indulgent experience
Güncelleme Tarihi:
ISTANBUL - The mansion was constructed by Ahmet Tosun Paşa in the 19th century and later given to the people of the town. In order to make the place a boutique hotel there was no need to change the building and an architect, Süreyya Saruhan, was appointed specifically to ensure its features were maintained.
Once upon a time there was a paşa who was the governor of a large province of the Ottoman Empire. He fell sick and went from doctor to doctor without results until one day he was told to go to a particular thermal spring in Anatolia. He went there and was cured. And he liked it so much that he had a mansion built there and lived happily ever after. Isn’t everybody supposed to live happily ever after?
Actually this wasn’t a "once upon a time" story but took place at the beginning of the 19th century, Ilıca is a real place and Ahmet Tosun Paşa (1794-1816) was a real person, the eldest son of Mehmet Ali Paşa who is considered to be the founder of modern Egypt. Tosun Paşa attained historical significance in his own right when in 1811 he led a successful military campaign leading the Egyptian army in the Arabian Peninsula. His purpose was to subdue the unrest created in that region by Wahabbi forces that eventually prevailed to found modern Saudi Arabia. When Tosun Paşa became sick and none of the doctors in Egypt could find a cure, he was advised to go to Ilıca in western Anatolia. He went and was cured, they say but still he was only 22 when he died. He loved Ilıca so much that he had a mansion built at the site of one of the thermal springs and willed it to the people of the area.
Ilıca from ancient times onwards
Known since antiquity for its healing warm springs, Ilıca was first mentioned in the writings of Pausanias, a second century A.D. Greek travel writer who wrote about Greece but included western Anatolia and the eastern Mediterranean. It is supposed to have been founded by people from Crete around 3000 B.C. although that seems an unlikely early date. Later several different groups of people took over the area from Lydians, Ephesians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Ottoman Turks to modern day Turks.
Ilıca is a small town that is the summer place for the wealthy of İzmir on the west of the peninsula that includes the better-known Çeşme. It has well-arranged streets and avenues lined by one-story houses with gardens. There are also big and medium-sized hotels in Ilıca in addition to the summer houses as well as a shopping district, restaurants and markets that meet the town’s basic requirements. But the real beauty of the region lies in its long beach and its cool Aegean summer sea breeze.
Even if one doesn’t want to soak up new health in one of the springs, one can enjoy the cozy harbors, superb wind surfing conditions from October to May [It’s No.3 in the world for wind surfing.] and great places to swim and bronze. One of the newer concepts in hotels took off in the 1980s in the United States and the United Kingdom and has been identified by the term boutique hotel. Usually they are small, intimate if you like, usually luxurious and pride themselves on personalized accommodations, services and features.
The concept was late in coming to Turkey and has basically only caught on in the last 10 years in Istanbul and other major cities. One might define them as pensions but usually these hotels are luxury items with a story behind them and thematic dcor.
The Nars Ilıca Hotel is one of these. This was the mansion constructed by Ahmet Tosun Paşa in the 19th century snd later given to the people of the town in which it is located.In order to make the place a boutique hotel there was no need to change the building and architect Sürreya Saruhan was in charge of keeping all of the building’s original features while interior designer Hakan Ezer combined history with modern day luxury in the hotel, including a fountain that still exists within the hotel in memory of Tosun Paşa.
The name of the hotel, Nars, became something of a puzzle. It isn’t an Ottoman Turkish word or a Greek word and there’s no relationship with the internationally known Nars Cosmetics. It might be from Arabic in which case it would mean seagull and it definitely is an Armenian word meaning pomegranate. Forget the above because "nars" is short for you couldn’t have possibly guessed Ğ narcissism. Eros, the god of love, says one should first love him or herself in order to truly love another. And that is what this boutique hotel promises its guests - an extremely selfish and even a narcissistic holiday.
Given the distinctive architecture that combines yesterday and today, each room has been made reminiscent of iconic eras in Aegean history and the decor in every corner speaks of everywhere from Suez to Europe. Superior service is sacred to modern day travellers and can be found at Nars Ilıca in abundance for all guests and shaped according to their choices and tastes.
Indulge in special menus
All hotel guests and visitors are invited to indulge in the special menus created by the hotel’s award winning executive chef, Derviş Sarıoğlu. Although he’s only 25, he has already represented Turkey in the Chain Des Rotisseurs competition in 2007. If you love fresh, fresh vegetables like fresh lemon, all green plants, thyme, celery, leek, basil and tomatoes straight from the farm, then February to March is the right season for this in Çesme and at the Nars Ilıca.
The Ilıca hot springs are one and half km. north of Ilıca. The hot spring has a water temperature of approximately 58 degrees right on the seaside and there’s even thermal water boiling inside the sea. The water contains many minerals thought to be useful for the treatment of any kind of chronic rheumatism, gout, obesity, rickets, women’s diseases, skin diseases and painful diseases of the liver and urethra.
The hotel’s own thermal pool and jacuzzi are coordinated with its aromatherapy programs and designed to welcome weary travellers in search of fitness, serenity and rejuvenation in a calm and relaxed ambience. Guests can then retire to the sublime luxury of their individually designed rooms.
’I have a dream’
Zeynep Çiftçioğlu joined the Nars Ilıca Hotel this past year as its general manager following on a successful stint at the Four Seasons Hotels in Istanbul as their public relations manager. According to her, "In the words of Martin Luther King ’I have a dream’ and my dream was to make a life for myself in Çesme, now my dream has become reality... It is thanks to all the people that I have met over the years, both professionally and personally that I have become the business woman that I am." So such an extraordinary boutique hotel and its enthusiastic young general manager will do well. Nars Ilıca boutique hotel will enliven the senses and propel you to a time when luxury and individual personalized service were a way of life for a pasa. An era of a bygone age awaits you in every one of its eight magnificently adorned rooms which will intoxicate you with its atmosphere and comfort. And you don’t necessarily have to be a narcissist or an egotist to enjoy yourself there.