Yahmur

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Yahmur
Yahmur Castle, Donjon

Yahmur Castle, Donjon

Alternative name (s): Qal'at Yahmur
Creation time : 12th Century
Castle type : Niederungsburg
Conservation status: ruin
Place: Yahmur
Geographical location 34 ° 48 '44 "  N , 35 ° 58' 14"  E Coordinates: 34 ° 48 '44 "  N , 35 ° 58' 14"  E
Yahmur (Syria)
Yahmur

Yahmur ( Arabic قلعة يحمور, DMG Qal'at Chastel Rouge , according to English transcription also Yahmour ) is a castle in the west of Syria in Tartus Governorate . The castle was essentially built by the Crusaders .

According to the latest research, it is disputed whether the castle is the Castel Rouge .

location

Yahmur is located in the southwestern foothills of the Jebel Aansariye , in the south of the coastal city of Tartus and about 10 kilometers west of the crusader castle Safita (Castel Blanc) .

history

Information about this castle is extremely sparse. The Byzantine general Nikephoros Phokas built the first fortification. Some stones of Roman origin are built into this. At the beginning of the 12th century the castle was conquered by the Crusader principality Antioch . In 1112 it came to the Count of Tripoli as marriage property . 1177/78 handed over Raimund III. from Tripoli the castle to the Order of St. John . He was interested in incorporating the fortification into the external defense system for his important seat in Tartus . The previous owners of the fief, the de Montolieu family , received other compensation.

Judging by the historical features of the buildings, the Johanniter began to completely rebuild the castle, as it essentially appears today.

In 1188 Saladin succeeded in temporarily taking possession of the castle after the battle of Hattin . The Johanniter were able to get it back. The castle finally fell into Muslim hands in 1289 when Sultan Qalawun conquered it. In the period that followed, the Mamluks added two diagonally arranged corner towers to the circular wall.

  • Yahmur Castle, rampart of the curtain wall

  • Yahmur Castle, loopholes in the battlements of the curtain wall

  • Yahmur Castle, gateway to the castle interior

  • Yahmur Castle, general view

literature

  • Ross Burns: Monuments of Syria . Tauris, London, New York 1999, ISBN 1-86064-244-6 .
  • Robin Fedden, John Thompson: Crusader castles in the Holy Land . Brockhaus, Wiesbaden 1959.
  • Hansgerd Hellenkemper: Crusader castles in the county of Edessa and in the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia . Habelt, Bonn 1976, ISBN 3-7749-1205-X .
  • Hugh Kennedy: Crusader castles . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1995, ISBN 0-521-42068-7 .
  • Thomas Edward Lawrence: Crusader Castles . Clarendon, Oxford 1989, ISBN 0-19-822964-X .
  • Jean Mesqui: Forteresses Médiévales au proche-orient. Quatre châteaux des Hospitaliers au nord du comté de Tripoli . ( PDF ; 262 KB).
  • Wolfgang Müller-Wiener: Castles of the crusaders in the holy land, on Cyprus and in the Aegean . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1966, p. 54.
  • Walter Zöllner: History of the Crusades . 4th edition. German Science Publishers, Berlin 1983.
  • Syria . Baedeker, Ostfildern 2000, ISBN 3-89525-629-3 .

Web links