Did you know there is a neighborhood in Aydin city that is based on the famous French capital’s landmarks? Created 99 years ago, it is unlike any other in Turkiye.

A person walking around the Atça Neighborhood of Sultanhisar district might think it an ordinary Anatolian settlement. However, when viewed from above, the perfect symmetry that emerges turns this place into a work of art.

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Atça was among the first settlements in Turkey to have a formal urban plan and to have a landscape plan. However, this unique structure did not come about overnight. The town, which was reduced to ruins by fires, was reborn from its ashes after the War of Independence.

Atça’s extraordinary design, which still fascinates city planners today, not only presents an impressive architectural example, but hosts a story that carries its deep historical roots to the present day.

Atça, which was earmarked by Ataturk for development, was re-designed by Engineer Abdi Hıfzı Bey, who had studied urban planning in Paris in 1924.

Bey was a technical expert who followed the world in the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century. After completing his urban studies in Paris, he returned to Turkey and developed projects on modern urban planning.

When he was given the task of reconstructing Atça together with Technical Officer Halil Efendi, he adopted an innovative approach inspired by the European urban models of that period.

Bay was inspired by the geometric urban structure of Paris, particularly by one of the most iconic points of Paris, Place de l’Étoile (later Charles de Gaulle Square).

He designed Atça on 8 main axes radially distributed from its center like the 12 radial roads originating from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

He did not limit his design to urban structuring alone, but also gave importance to landscape planning along the roads. For this reason, Atça was recorded as the first city in modern Turkey to have a landscape plan. Bey’s visionary perspective is still cited as an example in architecture and urban planning circles today.

It was not easy to implement this modern idea. When the people were forced to build according to a new plan instead of repairing their dilapidated houses, they initially showed great reaction.

The mayor of that period, Hafız Nuri Kara, was even taken to court. However, his following words went down in history: “By implementing this practice today, I may be destroying my villagers’ homes. But it is a fact that if this plan cannot be implemented today, won’t it be more difficult to demolish new buildings tomorrow?

“I am not thinking of today, but of tomorrow. Gentlemen! We are not destroying established orders, we are trying to establish a new order.”

As a result of this determined stance, the construction of modern Atça was completed in 1926, and Bey’s magnificent plan endures, especially noticeable from the air. Indeed, Atça is Aydin’s ‘Little Paris’ of Turkey.