The history of the city of Çanakkale

The city of Çanakkale
The core of settlement in the city founded on the shores of the Strait in the Ottoman era was around the Çimenlik Castle, built in1462. The fortress, which remains well preserved to this day and now serves as the Naval Museum, had Muslim military personnel, staff and public servants that were appointed to defend the Strait from the fortress, and who established a residential district around the Fatih Mosque called Cami-i Kebir. At the same time the Romanians who had worked on the building of the fortress settled in the Çay (Streamlet) district.
Following the forming of these two districts, the Greeks who were heavily involved in the shipping sector moved to the town from surrounding areas. They founded the Rum (Anatolian Greek) district to the north of Cami-i Kebir. At same time Armenians also moved into the town and settled around the Zafer Meydanı (Victory Square) church area.
The marketplace for the city was established to the north of the fortress. As small industries developed on the bank of the Sarıçay, artisans settled to the south of the Armenian district and to the east of the Çay district.

Becoming a port city

The town, at the time known as Kale-î Sultaniye, took its current name Çanakkale either from the fortress, whose appearance was reminiscent of a bowl, or from the pottery for which the town became famous. (Çanak in Turkish means bowl)
Çanakkale progressed towards becoming a city up to the 18th century, due to the increasing economic importance of the Straits, growing more prosperous as it developed into a port city. As the older districts expanded the Armenians that used to deal with trade began settling in and built in the Jewish district. With the Straits trade and its being a port city foreign governments established consulates in Çanakkale, with the number of diplomatic missions reaching 20 in a short time. They formed the trade missions district on the waterfront.
With the decline of the Ottoman in the 19th century, many of the Muslims living on the Aegean islands, the Crimean Peninsula and the Balkans began migrating to the Anatolian mainland. Some of those who found their homelands unsafe moved to Çanakkale, with the Tatar district being founded. At the same time, the city's non-Muslim population, rather than moving, continued to grow and spread, establishing a new Rum district.