Imagine an island so barren it offers no shelter, no water, no discernible reason to linger. Yet for centuries, it has been home to countless rabbits and a silent witness to Byzantine exile. This is Tavşanadası, or Rabbit Island.
It is the southernmost and most remote of the Istanbul Islands, stretching 25 kilometers across the Sea of Marmara. Measuring 330 meters in length and 225 meters in width, it’s slightly larger than Kaşıkadası.
Treeless, bare, and rocky, humans never permanently inhabited this rugged outcrop. Its arid surface instead became a sanctuary for its enduring residents: the rabbits from which it draws its common name, still roaming its stony slopes today.
Its Greek name, Neandros, means “New Andros.” Settlers from Andros Island in the Aegean Sea, who had made their home on nearby Heybeliada, gave it to the island. In naming this barren island after their homeland, they preserved a memory of where they came from.
On official maps, however, it appears as Balıkçı Adası (Fisherman Island). This name reflects the island’s maritime legacy: the waters surrounding Tavşanadası were once among the richest fishing grounds in the archipelago. During the Ottoman period, fishermen often cast their nets here, drawn by the promise of bluefish, turbot, and tuna.
While its names tell tales of land and sea, it is beneath the waves that Tavşanadası reveals its most vital contemporary story. In recent years, a presidential decree designated the island as a ‘vulnerable area to be protected.’
These waters are not only a migration and breeding route for rare fish species but also home to one of the Sea of Marmara’s lesser-known treasures: fragile coral formations, including the soft coral yellow gorgonian. Currently, Tavşanadası is at the center of coral restoration efforts as part of Istanbul’s designated marine conservation zones.
Yet, above the surface, the island remains an imposing study in solitude. There are no piers, no trails, and no shade – only wind, waves, and the ruins of a Byzantine monastery. The monastery stands near the island’s center, slightly east of the lighthouse, overlooking a small cove facing the Marmara Sea.
Reaching this isolated outpost demands dedication. There is no proper landing point, only a rocky inlet accessible by small boat. From there, a steep climb leads to what remains of a spiritual retreat dating back to the Middle Byzantine period.
Ignatios, son of Emperor Michael I Rangabe (reigned 811–813), built the monastery. After his defeat in the Bulgarian campaign, Michael was deposed and replaced by Leo V the Armenian. To eliminate any future threat to the throne, Leo exiled Michael’s sons to a monastery on Kınalıada.
It was during this exile that Niketas, the emperor’s son, chose the path of religious life. At the age of 14, he took the name Ignatios and later became one of Byzantium’s most prominent patriarchs.
Ignatios served as Patriarch of Constantinople in two separate terms: from 847 to 858, and again from 867 to 877. During the years between his patriarchates, he lived in exile. He was first sent to Kınalıada, then to Yoros Castle, perched on a cliff above Anadolu Kavağı at the northern end of the Bosphorus, where the strait opens into the Black Sea. He was later sent to Tavşanadası, where he lived in the very monastery he had founded.
By the 11th century, Tavşanadası had become a refuge for those seeking severance from power. Patriarch John of Antioch, Michael II Kurkonas, and Arsenios Autarianos all withdrew here, trading palaces for silence. But the island never fostered a permanent community. Its purpose was always transience: a place of waiting, repentance, or oblivion.
Today, the rabbits remain. So do the seabirds, the divers, and the biologists. The land is quiet, but the story continues – not in stone, but in the slow, submerged pulse of coral, and in the whispers of history carried by the Marmara’s winds.
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