Some cities do not simply exist—they hold space. Sivas, resting high on the Anatolian plateau, is one such place. It does not announce itself with loud colors or hurried crowds. It waits, with the patience of old stone, for you to arrive with open eyes and an open heart.
To enter Sivas is to walk through the pages of Turkish history. It is to breathe the air of poets, mystics, scholars, and shepherds. It is to feel the weight of endurance wrapped in the stillness of a winter sky. Sivas is not merely a city. It is a spirit. A lesson. A lamp lit long ago that still burns with quiet strength.
A City Shaped by Time and Temperature
Sivas sits tall—above 1,200 meters above sea level—in the vast heart of Türkiye. Winters here are long and cold, the snow deep, the winds whispering stories across open plains. Summers are short but golden, illuminating fields of wheat, poppies, and sky.
This climate has shaped the people: resilient, rooted, respectful of the land. Life in Sivas has always required steadiness. And in return, it has offered its people something rare: clarity of purpose.
Here, there is room to think. To breathe. To remember what matters.
Where History Was Chosen
Sivas is not just a place of memory—it is a turning point in Türkiye’s national soul. In 1919, during the Turkish War of Independence, the Sivas Congress was held here under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. It was in this humble Anatolian city that the vision for a free, sovereign Turkish Republic began to crystallize.
To walk the halls of the Sivas Congress and Ethnography Museum today is to feel the quiet courage of that moment. Decisions made here would ripple outward, reshaping a nation.
Sivas chose not just survival, but sovereignty. Not silence, but voice.
Medrese and Minaret: Stones that Speak
Long before modern history, Sivas was a cradle of knowledge and faith. In the 13th century, under the Seljuk Turks, the city flourished as a center of Islamic art, science, and education. The Gök Medrese (Blue Madrasah), Çifte Minareli Medrese (Double Minaret Madrasa), and Şifaiye Medrese (Healing School) are not just architectural marvels—they are testimonies to an age when thought and healing, science and spirit, walked hand in hand.
These structures, with their intricate stonework and calligraphy, still stand in the heart of the city like old teachers—welcoming, wise, and weathered.
They do not rush. They remind.
Sivas Folk and the Sound of the Soul
If Anatolia has a voice, it often sings through Sivas’ saz. The city is a wellspring of Turkish folk music and poetry. Âşık Veysel, the blind poet and musician who gave voice to the deepest sorrows and simplest truths of rural life, was born here. His words—gentle, plain, and piercing—carry the wisdom of centuries.
“I’m on a long and narrow road / I walk day and night.”
In Sivas, music is not performance—it is prayer. It is how people express grief, joy, longing, and love. Folk songs echo across mountain villages and family homes, turning life itself into melody.
The Heart in the Hearth
Life in Sivas is woven with hospitality. Tea is always ready. Bread is broken not just with friends, but with strangers. The famous Sivas köftesi (meatballs) and divriği pilavı are not just meals—they are acts of care.
This is a city where elders are honored, children are protected, and neighbors are kin. In rural villages, traditional houses are still built of wood and stone, with hearts as warm as their hearths.
In a world that often forgets slowness, Sivas remembers: relationships matter more than speed.
Divriği: The Crown of Sacred Stone
Just two hours away from Sivas city lies Divriği, home to one of the most extraordinary architectural treasures in the world: the Divriği Great Mosque and Hospital, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Built in the 13th century, this complex is stone turned to poetry—its gates covered with intricate carvings, geometric symmetries, and floral motifs so detailed and profound that they seem alive. The hospital, or darüşşifa, was a place of both physical and spiritual healing, reminding us that the body and soul cannot be separated.
In Divriği, medicine was an act of compassion. Architecture was an act of faith.
Let the World Learn from Sivas
Let us learn from Sivas that strength is not always loud. That the most important decisions in history can be made far from capitals, in rooms filled not with gold, but conviction.
Let us remember that education, when tied to ethics, can heal. That music, when rooted in truth, can transcend time. That cities, when grounded in humility, can rise above empires.
Let us build futures like the people of Sivas live their lives: with patience, with principle, with poetry.
Let us begin again—with Sivas.
Where wisdom is carved into stone,
Where the snow teaches endurance,
Where songs are deeper than words,
And where a city’s soul still waits to be heard.
Because the most beautiful world is not just built with hands.
It is built with memory, music, and meaning—
All of which live, quietly and powerfully,
In the heart of Sivas.