Trabzon formerly Trebizond is the largest city in the Eastern Karadeniz region of Turkey. Trabzon functioned as an independent state or empire during several periods in its long history, ruling over a vast area from Sinop in the west to Georgia in the east, even including territory in Crimea. Within Turkey Trabzon is known as a hospitable, energetic, traditional and patriotic city, which is culturally somewhat distinct from the rest of the country. They called their new colony Trapezous , ancient Greek for "table", due to the topography of the central hill, squeezed between two rivers with steep cliffs on both sides.
Trabzon has been a major trade centre through historyβfor long, it was a main port-of-call on one of the main routes between Europe and Persia and beyond, which involved taking a ship across the Black Sea from Romania and later Constantinople. After the Roman conquest , the city was given a new harbor and a paved road towards Persia. The road fostered trade and cultural exchange, and was used for attacks on the Persian Empire during the Roman and Byzantine periods.
After a Turkmen attack on the city was repelled by a local force in the s, the city broke relations with the Byzantine Empire and acted as an independent state. The Mongol sack of Baghdad diverted more trade caravans from Tabriz to Trabzon and the city grew in wealth from the taxes it could impose on trade between Europe, Persia and China. The city traded intensely with Genoa and to a lesser extent with Venice during the early renaissance , with some cultural influences going both ways.
During this era, Trabzon was visited by many travellers, Marco Polo being among them. In medieval times, the city served as the capital of the Empire of Trebizond ruled by the Komnenos family, which also provided several emperors to the Byzantine throne in Constantinople.
The longest surviving rump Byzantine state, Trabzon was captured by the Ottoman Turks in , almost a decade after the fall of Constantinople. During the 18th and 19th centuries Europeans wishing to explore the Caucasus , Iran and the eastern domains of the Ottoman Empire used Trabzon as a point of departure or return. Closed borders with the Soviet Union meant that the city could only recover culturally and economically in the s.
