Top choice in Kars
This eight-room boutique hotel, in a 19th-century Russian mansion, is a cocoon of luxurious indulgence. Very comfortable, high-ceilinged rooms have king-sized beds and Molton Brown toiletries, and the palatial suite has a marble desk and old fireplace with real fires lit in winter.
Manager Mehmet is a passionate Kars-loving tourism expert who speaks good English.
26.12 MILES
The ruins of Ani, 45km east of Kars, are an absolute must-see. Visitors enter through gigantic fortress walls that look like they fell off a crusader…
26.55 MILES
Appealingly sited overlooking a stretch of river gorge, this 13th-century church appears relatively intact, though the current main door is within what…
0.39 MILES
Dating from at least 1153, Kars Castle' s hefty, dark-stone walls crown the craggy ridge that dominates the city-centre's northern edge, fronted by a…
26.25 MILES
Completed in 1010, the grassy-roofed cathedral is the largest building among the Ani ruins. The building's elegantly finished stone walls are relatively…
26.12 MILES
Ani's 1072 Manuçehr Camii was built by the Seljuk Turks, using Armenian architects and artisans, creating a stylistic blend in what is considered to have…
25.72 MILES
The cliffs and valleys all around the Ani plateau are riddled with hundreds of caves that guides have collectively dubbed Ani's 'Underground City'. Mostly…
Kafkaz Cephesi Harp Tarihi Müzesi
1.15 MILES
This new museum specialising in early 20th-century history is hosted in the heavy arches of an 1803 bastion, a surviving fragment of vast ramparts that…
26.03 MILES
Covering the large rocky eminence at the southern point of the Ani plateau, İç Kale is a jumble of tumbled stone, with faint vestiges of ancient palaces…
1. Health Directorate Building
0.1 MILES
On this 1907 building, thick paint somewhat mars the facade of floral motifs and mock columns built in typical Kars' Baltic (ie northern Russian) style.
0.15 MILES
Facing a pretty little garden surrounded by further century-old buildings, this proud 1883 mansion was where the 1921 Treaty of Kars was signed, settling…
0.18 MILES
A three-storey late 19th-century L-shaped building with a long, false-columned facade, this is one of the more impressive pieces of Kars' 'Baltic…
0.19 MILES
With an especially attractive north facade, the 16th-century 'Mosque of Saints' was built to commemmorate the 11th-century saint Hasan-i Harakani who…
5. Kars Culture & Art Association
0.22 MILES
The address is an unpromising paint shop ('Yeni Akçay Kol. Şir.'). However, if you can find him in, the shop's owner is local historian Vedat Akçayöz who…
0.23 MILES
Below Kars Castle, the imposing, basalt Kümbet Camii was built as a church between 932 and 937 when Kars was (briefly) capital of the Bagratuni kingdom of…
0.27 MILES
Pushkin is known to have bathed at this rectangular 18th-century basalt hamam in 1829, which stands near the river below Kars Castle. These days you'll…
0.28 MILES
For a great vantage point to soak up the main sights of historic Kars in a single visual sweep, it's hard to beat the forecourt of this 17th-century…