Yoros castle ruins

Yoros castle ruins
	Anadolu Kavaği village and Yoros castle ruins
Creation time :	1262
Castle type :	Hilltop castle
Conservation status:	ruin
Place:	Anadolu Kavağı
Geographical location	41 ° 10 '43 " N , 29 ° 5' 40" E Coordinates: 41 ° 10 '43 " N , 29 ° 5' 40" E
Height:	200 m

The Bosphorus : On the left side of the picture on the opposite bank is the Yoros Castle with its sister castle in the foreground. Original steel engraving by W.H. Bartlett : 1838

Container ship in front of the castle ruins

The Yoros castle ruins are located near the village of Anadolu Kavağı in the Turkish province of Istanbul .

location

The ruin is located on the eastern bank of the Bosporus south of its confluence with the Black Sea on a hill about 200 meters high in the Beykoz district a few kilometers north of the city of the same name.

Surname

The origin of the name Yoros , sometimes also Yoroz or Ioros , has not been conclusively clarified, but it is certainly of Greek origin. Possible roots are Hieron (holy place), Ourios (ideal wind) or Oros (mountain). Sometimes the ruins of Yoros Castle are also called Genoese Castle or Fortress. The Genoese took the castle at the beginning of the 14th century, but did not build it.

history

The area of today's Anadolu Kavağı was a Greek colony in ancient times . The Greeks built a temple on the hill Yusa Tepesi (Joshua hill). a. in honor of the god Zeus . Later, Anadolu Kavağı was several times the battleground against attackers from the north, such as B. in the 3rd century the Goths .

During the Byzantine Empire of Michael VIII (1259–1282), Yoros Castle was built on the site of the Greek temples in order to better defend Constantinople, which was recaptured by the Crusaders in 1262 .

In 1305 the castle near Anadolu Kavağı was conquered for the first time by the supporters of Osman I and after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 it was finally Ottoman . Between 1300 and 1350 the Genoese briefly controlled the castle complex, which then fell to the Byzantine Empire by the end of the 14th century. The fourth Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I captured Yoros Castle at the gates of the still Orthodox Constantinople during successful campaigns in Europe and Asia at the end of the 14th century.

Sultan Murad IV. ( 1623 -1640) was on both sides of the Bosphorus to the castles of Yoros at Anadolu KavagI and Rumeli KavagI 20-meter-high towers and homes for garrison with 100 cannons expand, when the Ottoman Empire at war with the Cossacks was that could have attacked Constantinople from the Black Sea.

When the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia in 1783 , the castle complex was expanded again by Sultan Abdülhamid I.

Todays use

After centuries of use of the castle as a town and observation and defense post at the entrance to the Bosporus, the castle was abandoned in the 19th century. Today the Bosphorus is open to tourists and the picturesque fishing village of Anadolu Kavağı with the nearby castle ruins is a popular destination.

Web links