Yedikule fortress — the history of Istanbul

One of the oldest fortresses of Istanbul invites you to have a look in the past...

The beauties of Yedikule

The fortress was created in 1458 by Mehmed the Conqueror. It played an important role in the city’s life — rituals and ceremonies took place here. The appearance of the fortress coincided with the significant historical period – the conquest of Constantinople. Several outhouses were added to the existing building of Constantinople period, and so it turned out that four towers of the fortress were built by Byzantines, and three inner ones – by Muslims already. Between the two towers of the fortress there are the famous Golden gates, built in 390. There is a stairway in the wall, if you ascend it you can pass through several towers to Belgrade gates or to Silivri gates. It’s not a surprise that the fortress could stand for so many years – it was built to last – the inner walls of this building are five meters in width, and the outer walls – two meters. Probably, due to this width the inner walls of Yedikule were preserved till nowadays, whereas the outer walls are almost destroyed.

The beauty and appointments of the fortress are worth to be admired! Its “Golden gates” are named so on purpose. Their walls are covered with real vermeil. Unfortunately, today we can only guess about the past beauty of Yedikule by the remnants of the luxury or find out about it from the ancient sources and try to recreate in our imagination all its grandeur and shine of the ancient Istanbul’s sight.

Yedikule fortress through centuries

A lot changed during the long years of the existence of this ancient fortress. Yedikule fortress has served well to the country and at present it still is the object of attention, but the tourist one – as a historical sight and the place where public events are held. During the years of existence the fortress used to be the prison for ambassadors that were kept there as hostages – it is known that almost all Russian ambassadors of the period of 17-18 century used to be held in Yedikule fortress. It is also known that in the past times sultan used to keep the treasury and his archives in the fortress. On the whole, these walls have seen a lot during their existence. And today Yedikule castle is waiting for its visitors as a museum.