Yolçatı, Silivri


Yolçatı, formerly Gelevri or Galivri, deriving from its Greek name Kalavrye or Kalabrye, is a village near Çanta, Silivri, in the Istanbul Province of Turkey.

History

The settlement exists since Late Antiquity, and was until recently known by its Greek name Kalavrye or Kalabrye, also Galavrye/Galabrye, Kalabria, Kalovrye/Kalobrye, and Kalavre. In the early 4th century it may have been the seat of a bishop, who by the end of the century moved to neighbouring Selymbria. The inhabitants of the town were involved in the Nika riots of 532 against Emperor Justinian I. The locality is next mentioned in 1078, as the site of the Battle of Kalavrye, where the forces of Emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, led by Alexios Komnenos, defeated the army of the rebel general Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder.
It is next mentioned by the Arab geographer al-Idrisi as Geliwrî; al-Idrisi records it simply as a locality close to Selymbria. The village was home to a Greek community until the Greco-Turkish population exchange. It was the site of a Church of the Transfiguration and of a namesake hagiasma, but both have since vanished.