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Rumelihisarı as drawn by Gabriel

Black Sea on 10 November. Two weeks later, on 26 November, another Venetian ship under the command of Antonio Rizo, was hit and sunk, while on 2 December a ship belonging to the Greek Principate of Trabzon succeeded, with great difficulty, in running the blockade.

These two castles played a very important role in facilitating the conquest of Istanbul in 1453. Rumelihisarı provided protection for the rear of the forces taking part in the siege of Istanbul and for the troops massing in the vicinity. With the conquest of Istanbul, however, these two castles were left completely devoid of any real military function. Once Istanbul became the capital of the Ottoman Empire, they lay too far to the south to protect the city from enemies entering the Bosphorus from the Black Sea. Moreoever, both shores of the straits were now occupied by the Turks,

and the need arose for a defensive fortification much further up the Bosphorus at the entrance to the Black Sea.

The function once performed by the fortress of Rumelihisarı was therefore now transferred to fortresses constructed further to the north. In any case, Rumelihisarı had been converted into a prison immediately after the conquest of Istanbul. Although it is not known for certain whether the Grand Vizier Çandarlı Halil Pasha, arrested on a charge of high treason immediately after the conquest, was imprisoned in Edime or Istanbul, if he was imprisoned in Istanbul then he was most probably confined in the fortress of Rumelihisarı. Gedik Ahmet Pasha, who had been unwilling to set out on a campaign against the castle of Işkodra in Albania, is also known to have been imprisoned here for a short time.

In the Ottoman period, Rumelihisarı was well-known as a place where

Janissaries guilty of various offences were confined, as well as a place of detention for embassy staff belonging to countries with which the Empire was at war. Janissaries who had committed serious offences were, after being tried in the palace of the Janissary Agha, known as Paşakapısı, located between Siileymaniye and Bayezid, taken down to the Çardak Janissary guardroom at Yemiş İskelesi, whence they were taken by caique to Rumelihisarı and executed. The

execution of the sentence was announced by a volley of cannonfire.

From the sixteenth century onwards, all personnel belonging to embassies of foreign countries at war with the Ottoman Empire were interned in Rumelihisarı. This made it a place of ill fame as far as foreigners were concerned, and led to one of the towers being known as Karakule (the Black Tower). From the diaries kept by some of these internees we learn that during the daytime they were allowed to walk freely in the inner courtyard of the castle, and that they were sometimes able to make contact with the outside world through the good offices of their guards. Ferdinand’s representative Malvezzi was detained here for some time in 1551 during the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent. The German R. Lubeneau was imprisoned in Rumelihisarı in 1587, while Baron Wencelas von Mitrowicz, a foreign representative of Czechoslovak origin, was imprisoned here in 1598, together with all the members of the embassy staff. The journals kept by Baron Wencelas give a fairly detailed account of life in the castle, and his name, which he carved on one of the walls in tower A, is still visible today. The same wall contains inscriptions, names and dates carved by other foreigners interned here. In 1595, sixteen of the foreigners imprisoned here managed to escape from the fortress, following which the castle wardens were sentenced to death. Giovanni Soranzo, the Venetian

representative in Istanbul, was confined in Rumelihisarı in 1649 together with all his staff, and his interpreter Grillo, possibly on account of attempts he had made to influence the guards, was put to death in the fortress. Paintings and small pictures illustrating this incident were published in Venice. One series of pictures depicts the arrest of Soranzo and all his men, their being led off in chains and put into caiques, their disembarcation at the castle, their life

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began with the construction of the tower which was destined to form the south­ east corner of the castle, thus ensuring the safety of the materials which were no doubt being massed at a point very close to the shore on the European side of the Bosphorus.

We learn from the sources that work was begun in March 1452 with about a thousand artisans and about twice that number of labourers under the personal supervision of Mehmet II in accordance with a project very meticulously drawn up by the Sultan himself. There is no sound basis for the hypothesis that the work was carried out by an architect by the name of Musliheddin. One point, however, on which all the sources agree, is that the construction of the fortress was completed within four months. It would also appear that, in accordance with old Turkish custom, high-ranking dignitaries also played a part in the work and contributed towards its expense, assuming individual responsibility for the construction of certain towers or sections of the defence walls, but definite proof of this can be found only in the case of tower C in the south-west, which bears an inscription to the effect that it was constructed under the supervision of Zaganos Pasha. Although Saruca Pasha is said to have been responsible for tower A in the north-west and £andarli Halil Pasha for tower B by the shore, other theories have also been proposed. According to the chronicles of

Kemalpa§azade, one of the towers was constructed by §ihabeddin Pasha, but no indication is given as to which tower is meant. It may well have been one of the smaller towers.

There are two Arabic inscriptions referring to the construction of the fortress of Rumelihisan. One of these is to be found on tower C, the other on tower B by the shore in the south-east corner. Both of these refer to Zaganos Pasha, but different theories have been put forward as to how they should be deciphered and interpreted. According to these inscriptions, the tower was completed in the month of Recep 856 H. (July-August 1452). Although some claim that the names Allah and Muhammed are to be found in the rectangular cufic brick inscription on the outside wall of the tower B, the idea is rejected by E. H. Ayverdi. The memoirs left by a person known as the «Polish Janissary», who was present at the conquest of Istanbul, relate how the Byzantines, greatly alarmed on seeing Mehmet II begin the construction of the fortress, were considering making

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an attempt to capture the building, and were prevented from doing so only by Mehmed IPs explanation that the castle was being built to protect the city and its merchants from the Catalan pirates who infested the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The Byzantines were thus obliged to turn a blind eye to the construction of the fortress, falling back on a plan to besiege the castle once the Sultan had left Istanbul. The

construction work lasted for four months, and must therefore have been completed by August 1452. In the autumn of the

Tower A

same year, the castle, which had been furnished with very powerful cannon, was manned by a garrison of four hundred men under the command of Firuz Agha. The smaller cannon were mounted on the towers, the larger cannon at the bottom of the curtain wall by the shore. The stone projectiles fired by these cannon were of immense size and literally skimmed over the surface of the water. We know this from accounts of the cannonfire directed at the two Venetian galleys that attempted to make their way through the Bosphorus from the

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there, and finally their liberation. The same incidents are to be found illustrated in Turkish style in an album of

miniatures in Venice. One of these miniatures depicts the interpreter

Giovanni Antonio Grillo being strangled in front of what would appear to be tower A.

In 1509, during the reign of

Bayezid II (1481-1512), Rumelihisarı was severely damaged by an earthquake known as kıyameti suğra (the lesser judgment day), which lasted several days and wrought devastation throughout the whole of the city. The damage was, however, immediately repaired. Later, in the middle of the seventeenth century, the castle was severely damaged by a great fire. After being repaired for the last time in the reign of Selim III (1789-

1807), it was abandoned to its fate and used as housing accommodation by the people. The houses in the courtyard, which had formerly been occupied by the commander of the garrison and the guards, and which had stood there since the castle was first built, now formed the nucleus of a small village. During the First World War there were plans for setting up a Naval Museum here, and a German construction bureau was entrusted with carrying out the necessary modifications. The project was still in a preparatory stage when work was abandoned at the end of the war. Serious work on Rumelihisarı could be resumed only thirty-five years later in 1953. After that, large scale work on the repair and restoration of the castle was undertaken at the request of the

President, and the houses in the courtyard were demolished. Though these repairs

undoubtedly saved the castle from ruin, some of the modifications made at that time, for example, the open-air theatre constructed on the site formerly occupied by the mesjid, were quite out of harmony with the historical character of the building. It was suggested that, while these repairs were being carried out, tower B on the shore should be converted into a «Museum of Mehmet the Conqueror». A number of items were ear-marked for inclusion in the museum, but the whole project was later abandoned.

As a fortress, Rumelihisarı can match the strongest castles and fortresses of the same period in Europe. It was located at the narrowest part of the straits and, together with Anadoluhisan on the opposite shore, could effectively prevent the passage of ships through the Bosphorus by means of cross fire. The strategic importance of the castle was further increased by the fact that boats

Tower C and the Bosphorus

were forced by the current to sail very close to the European shore at this point. The cannons could thus be trained on targets from the point at which they came within range on the north to the farthest point on the south. The suggestion that the site had previously been occupied by a Byzantine castle and that some sections of Rumelihisarı consist of fragments of this building is totally without foundation. A study published by S. Toy in 1930 suggests that the dungeons known as the towers of «Lethe» and «Oblivion» were located here and that towers B and C were essentially Byzantine structures dating from the twelfth century. Later research, however, has proved this theory

completely untenable. Rumelihisarı was built as a single whole in accordance with an excellent plan based on a detailed examination of the strategic features of the site. This may well, on the other hand, have been the place known as Phonea in the Byzantine period. The fifteenth century Turkish historian Neşri writes that ruined remains of former buildings were encountered during the construction of the fortress. The statement by the Byzantine historian Ducas that stones from these fragments as well as from the ruins of the

monasteries in the vicinity were employed in the construction is confirmed

by the carved marble stones dating from

the Byzantine period still to be seen embedded in the walls. The idea that when viewed from the water or from the opposite shore the plan of the castle forms the words Ya Muhammed in Cufic script is a mere figment of the popular imagination and has no basis whatever in fact. The claim made by the historian J. von Hammer (1774-1856) that the plan of the castle is a work of pure imitation is also quite unfounded. The fortress is situated on a rocky slope with two towers located on two hills above, and the third tower on the shore, which descends steeply into the sea.

Tower A is at a height of 43 m above sea-level, and tower C at a height of 57 m, the two towers being separated by a deep ravine running down between them. The castle measures a maximum of 250 m from north to south, and a maximum of 125 m from east to west. When first built it stood directly on the sea, and the gate beside the shore tower B was protected by an outer wall (Hisarbece). There was probably a landing-stage at this point, and possibly a small harbour for caiques. The walls connecting the towers vary in width from 5 m in the the more exposed sections to 3 m on the steeper slopes. The courtyard is connected to the banquette on top of the outer walls by means of

eighteen stone stairways. The main entrance to the fortress lies immediately beside the shore tower B. This must be the gate referred to by Evliya Çelebi as the Hisarbeçe Gate. In my own opinion, the Dizdar (Warden’s) Gate must be the one adjacent to tower A opening towards the north, and the Dağ (Mountain) Gate the one to the north of tower C. The Sel (Flood) Gate, with its iron bolts, which was kept permanently closed in the time of Evliya Çelebi, is very likely the one located to the west of tower C. As the banquettes are in no way connected to

the towers themselves, even if the enemy were to succeed in penetrating into the courtyard, the soldiers in the towers could still continue the defence. The three large towers, which closely resemble the keep in a western type castle, range from 24 m to 26 m in diameter. The walls reach a thickness of 6-7 m in places. As for the height of the towers as measured from their bases, tower A is 33.26 m, tower B 35.35 m and tower C 25.30 m. The interiors formerly contained a number of wooden floors, each storey having a fireplace and chimney. Access to these various floors was provided by staircases built within the thickness of the walls, though a different system was used in each tower. Tower A is distinguished from the others in its being surmounted by a brick dome. The towers formerly had conical wooden roofs plated with lead. These roofs are clearly visible in old paintings and engravings, and are still in evidence in the sketches of Istanbul and the Bosphorus drawn by F. Melling during the reign of Selim III. Engravings published towards the middle of the nineteenth century show that by that time these conical roofs had been removed.

As in all other castles of this type, small houses were built in the courtyard, which were later replaced by civilian dwellings. According to Evliya Çelebi there were as many as one hundred and fifty such houses. There was also a small mosque founded by the Conqueror. Of this mosque, which lay for many years in ruins, nothing now remains save the

Open air theater in the coutryard and the remains of the minaret from the original mesjid

body of the minaret. A round cistern had been constructed beneath this mosque, and three fountains had been built in other places for the supply of water to the garrison and the houses in the courtyard. Outside the fortress, immediately to the south, lay a small cemetery separated from the sea by a very narrow road. This site, now known as Kayalar (Rocks) and very much reduced in size owing to the loss of a section by the shore, was later occupied by a tekke (dervish lodge) founded in

1528/9 by Sheikh Hasan Zarifi Efendi of Gülşeniyye (d. 1569-1570), but which took the name of the saint and mystic Durmuş Dede, who migrated here from Akkirman during the reign of Sultan Ahmed I (1603-1617). There was also a cemetery behind tower C known as «Şehidler» containing the graves of those who had died during the battle for the conquest of Istanbul, as well as a Bektashi convent. The settlement within the fortress contained the tekke of Nalbur Mehmed Efendi of the Nakşibendiyye. The Turkish flag now flies from the highest tower of Rumelihisarı, itself a symbol of Turkish domination of the Bosphorus. On the hill behind will soon arise the monument to the Conqueror, in grateful acknowledgment of his having won the city of Istanbul for the Turkish

Dizdar gate

Tower B

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İstanbul Şehir Üniversitesi Kütüphanesi Taha Toros Arşivi