Off the coast of Turkey, near the present city of Fetigie is its abandoned island Saint Nicholasas the seafarers called it during the medieval period.
Archaeologists estimate that the first burial of Agios Nikolaos was carried out on this island, from which it was named.
On the island you can find demolished buildings as well as the ruins of five churches built between the fourth and sixth centuries AD during the Byzantine period, and there are over fifty Christian tombs.
The island was probably an intermediate attitude of Christian pilgrims, who traveled to the Holy Land.
Archaeologists estimate that the saint after his death in 326 AD. He was buried in the rocky church church at the highest point of the island, on the westernmost end of the 350 -meter -long hiking route.
His relics allegedly remained there until the 650s AD, when the island was abandoned as it was under threat to raids by the Arab fleet. They were then transferred to where Saint Nicholas was bishop, that is, in the Myra of Lycia, about 40 kilometers east.
The Turkish name of the island is “Gemiler Adasi”, that is, the “island of ships”, which may be reference to the role of St. Nicholas as the patron of the seafarers.
The island is not a place of pilgrimage, as the churches have now been ruined after the Asia Minor Disaster and the persecution of the Greeks of the East.
However, many tourists visit the island during the summer months arriving on the spot with large Turkish sailing boats, as well as smaller private vessels, as its gulf is crescent -shaped and is a secure mooring.
On the island, finally, there is an improvised restaurant, which is open only during the tourist season, where visitors can taste traditional Turkish cuisine.