The story of Antioch of Pisidia

In AD 46, Paul and Barnabas arrived in this town, and Paul gave his first official sermon here. Antiocheia of Pisidia lies on the northern edge of modern Yalvaç, in the Lakes Region of Isparta, on the border of Pisidia and Phrygia.

It was founded in 275 BC by Seleucus I or his son Antiochus I as an outpost against the Gauls in Phrygia, and in 6 BC it became the centre of the eight colonies Augustus founded in Pisidia. Later it was the metropolis of the province of Pisidia and kept that role in Byzantine times, until an Arab attack destroyed and burned it in 713. Walk among the foundations of the Temple of Augustus, the Roman baths and the aqueducts, and find the Church of St. Paul, one of the first churches in Anatolia.

The theatre was enlarged in 311-313, yet many of its blocks were later carried off for other buildings. Many finds are on show in the Yalvaç Museum.