Hopa Laz böreği
Custard-filled pastry
Thin yufka layered around a custard of milk, sugar, flour, eggs and yogurt seasoned with black pepper, baked and served cold.
Black Sea Region
Artvin
On Artvin's table, anchovies and cornmeal often turn up side by side. Hopa hamsili ekmeği brings brined anchovies together with cornmeal, leek, chard, parsley and tomato in a single tray, and it is eaten on its own. Hamsili pilav takes rice cooked with onion, pine nuts and currants and bakes it in a tray covered with anchovies. The real surprise is tucked inside Hopa Laz böreği: between thin layers of yufka sits a custard seasoned with black pepper, and the pastry is served cold. Puçuko pairs sun-dried green beans with tomato paste and bulgur, sometimes finished with lemon or vinegar, while Şavşat ketesi, folded with local butter, is baked on a wood-fired kuzine stove. Head into the valleys and the honey changes too: Hatila balı, chestnut honey from Arhavi and honey from Maçahel. A palate surprised by black-peppered custard has every reason to follow Artvin up into those valleys and their honeys.
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Where the Kaçkars meet the Black Sea
Steep green valleys, beehives and a coastal table of anchovies.
Signature dishes
Look closely at the pantry: dried green beans, rolled dough, dairy and the sweet custard inside Laz böreği.
Puçuko
Dried green beans with bulgur
Sun-dried green beans cooked with tomato paste and bulgur, sometimes finished with lemon or vinegar.
Black Sea Anchovy Rice
Spiced rice with currants, pine nuts and dill enclosed in a browned anchovy shell.
Hopa hamsili ekmeği
Anchovy cornbread
Cornmeal kneaded with brined anchovies, onion, leek, chard, parsley and tomato, baked in a tray and eaten on its own.
Şavşat ketesi
Buttery folded bread
Yeasted dough brushed with local butter, folded in strips, rolled into rounds and baked on a wood-fired stove.
Silor
Rolled pastry with yogurt
Griddle-cooked dough rolled up, sliced and baked, then softened and served with yogurt and melted butter.
Çinçar çorbası
Nettle soup
A stinging nettle soup, cooked mostly in the coastal districts.
Çarğala
Greens cooked with eggs
Chard or spinach cooked in oil with eggs.
Artvin döneri
Spit-roasted lamb
Lamb marinated overnight with onion, black pepper and chilli flakes, threaded on a spit over the fire and sliced as it cooks.
Local ingredients
Hatila balı
Honey from the Hatila area near Artvin.
Guide not written yetArhavi kestane balı
Chestnut honey from Arhavi.
Guide not written yetMaçahel balı
Honey from the Maçahel (Camili) valley.
Guide not written yetBorçka demir elması
An apple grown around Borçka, also made into molasses and vinegar.
Guide not written yet
Anchovies
Raw anchovies, cleaned and butterflied, for frying or arranging around rice.
Food culture
The provincial directorate describes Artvin’s dance repertoire through Black Sea, Caucasian and Eastern Anatolian connections. Named forms include Atabarı, Deli Horon and dances associated with Arhavi and Borçka. Local identity here includes exchange rather than cultural isolation. Domestic buildings and food stores provide a quieter counterpart to public performance. A granary and a dried ingredient both invite attention to how households keep provisions, without implying that all homes share one unchanged way of life.
Anchovy and cornmeal
On the coast, anchovies are baked over rice and mixed into cornmeal bread.
Valley honey
Beekeeping runs through the valleys, from Hatila to Arhavi and Maçahel.
What to bring home
- Hatila honey
- Arhavi chestnut honey
- Şavşat kete
- Dried green beans for puçuko
- Şavşat kilims
- Hand-made copperware
History & landscape
Artvin Castle, rising on a steep hill, is one of the city’s historic landmarks. Also known as Livane Castle, it stands on the banks of the Çoruh River. Built in the 10th century by the Georgian King Bagrat, the castle was repaired several times under Ottoman rule. Barhal Church in Altıparmak village opens another door onto the region’s medieval past. The Georgian Orthodox monastery church was commissioned by David III Kurapalat and dedicated to John the Baptist.
The province’s geography also shows in the fabric of its settlements. Maden village, formerly known as Bazgiret, lies in a valley surrounded by forests and rocks. It sits in a climate transition zone where the mild, rainy Black Sea climate meets the continental climate of Eastern Anatolia, and its civil architecture is entirely wooden. In Artvin, not only village and highland houses but also granaries and barns are built of wood. Fine examples of stone architecture appear mostly in Yusufeli, and partly in Ardanuç, Arhavi and Hopa.
