Bodrum Castle
Bodrum Castle | |
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Muğla Province in Turkey | |
Coordinates | 37°1′54″N 27°25′46″E / 37.03167°N 27.42944°E |
Bodrum Castle (
History
Confronted by the now firmly established
The first walls were completed in 1437. The chapel was among the first completed inner structures (probably 1406). It consists of a vaulted nave and an
Each
The architect applied the latest features in castle design; the passages leading to the gates were full of twists and turns. Eventual assailants could not find cover against the arrows, stones or heated projectiles they had to confront. The knights had placed above the gates and on the walls hundreds of painted coats of arms and carved reliefs. Two hundred and forty-nine separate designs still remain, including those of grand masters, castle commandants, countries, and personal coat of arms of knights and religious figures.
The construction of the three-storied English tower was finished in 1413. One door opens to the north, to the inner part of the castle, while the other leads to the western rampart. One could only access this tower via a drawbridge. The western façade shows an antique carved relief of a lion. Because of this relief, the tower was also called "the Lion Tower". Above this lion, one can see the coat of arms of King Henry IV of England.
For over a century St. Peter's Castle remained the second most important castle of the Order. It served as a refuge for all Christians in Asia Minor.
The castle came under attack with the rise of the Ottoman Empire, first after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and again in 1480 by Sultan Mehmed II. The attacks were repelled by the Knights of St John. In 1482, Prince Cem Sultan, son of Sultan Mehmed II and brother of Sultan Bayezid II, sought refuge in the castle, after a failure in raising a revolt against his brother.
When the Knights decided to fortify the castle in 1494, they used stones from the Mausoleum once again. The walls facing the mainland were thickened in order to withstand the increasing destructive power of cannon. The walls facing the sea were less thick, since the Order had little to fear from a sea attack due to their powerful naval fleet.
16th century
Between 1505 and 1507 the few sculptures from the mausoleum that had not been smashed and burnt for lime were integrated into the castle for decoration. These included twelve slabs of the
When faced with an attack from
In June 1522 the sultan attacked the Order's headquarters in Rhodes from the Bay of Marmaris with 200,000 soldiers (Siege of Rhodes (1522)). The castle of Rhodes fell in December 1522. The terms of surrender included the handing over of the Knights' fortresses in Kos and St Peter's Castle in Bodrum.
After the surrender, the chapel was converted into a mosque and a minaret was added. This mosque was called the Süleymaniye Camii, as attested by a traveler, Evliya Chelebi, who visited Bodrum in 1671. The minaret was destroyed on 26 May 1915 by rounds fired by a French warship during World War I. It was reconstructed in its original shape in 1997.
19th century
In 1846
In later years, the castle has been used for different purposes. It was used as a military base by the Turkish Army during the Greek Revolt in 1824. In the 19th century, the chapel which had been converted for use as a mosque had a minaret added. At the same time, a hamam (public bath) was installed in the castle. In 1895 the castle was turned into a prison. During World War I, the castle was fired upon by a French warship, toppling the minaret and damaging several towers. After the Great War, the Italians established a garrison in the castle but withdrew in 1921 when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk came to power, when the castle stood empty for 40 years.[citation needed]
Museum of Underwater Archaeology
In 1962 the Turkish Government decided to turn the castle into a museum for the underwater discoveries of ancient shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea. This has become the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology,[6] with a collection of amphoras, ancient glass, bronze, clay, and iron items. It is the biggest museum of its kind devoted to underwater archaeology.[citation needed] Most of its collection dates from underwater excavations carried out by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) after 1960. These excavations were performed on several shipwrecks:
- Finike-Gelidonya shipwreck (12th century BC): 1958–1959; first underwater excavation in Turkey[7]
- Bodrum-Yassiada shipwreck (Byzantine, 7th century AD): 1961–1964; Roman merchant vessel with 900 amphoras
- Bodrum -Yassiada shipwreck (Late Roman, 4th century AD)
- Bodrum-Yassiada shipwreck (Ottoman, 16th century AD) (dated by a 16th-century four-real silver coin from Seville (Philip II) )
- Ṣeytan Deresi shipwreck (16th century BC)
- Serçe Limanı Shipwreck (glass, 11th century AD): 1977; collection of Islamic glassware
- Marmaris-Serçe harbour shipwreck (Hellenistic, 3rd BC)
- Kaṣ-Uluburun shipwreck (14th century BC): 1982–1995; 10 tons of Cypriot copper ingots; one ton of pure tin ingots; 150 glass ingots; manufactured goods; Mycenaean pottery; Egyptian seals (with a seal of queen Nefertiti) and jewelry[8]
- Tektaṣ Burnu Classical Greek shipwreck (5th century BC): 1999-2001
The former chapel houses an exhibition of vases and amphoras form the Mycenaean age (14th to 12th centuries BC) and findings from the Bronze Age (around 2500 BC). The commercial amphoras give a historical overview of the development of amphoras and their varied uses.[9]
The Italian Tower houses a collection spanning many centuries in the Coin and Jewelry Hall.[quantify] Another exhibition room is devoted exclusively to the tomb of a Carian princess, who died between 360 and 325 BC. The collection of ancient glass objects is one of the four largest ancient glass collections in the world.[citation needed]
Finally, two ancient shipwrecks have been reconstructed: the Fatımi ship, sunk in 1077 AD, and the large
A garden inside the castle is a collection of almost every plant and tree of the Mediterranean region,[citation needed] including both the myrtle, and the plane tree. Turquoise and amber peacocks parade under flowering trees and bushes. From the towers it is possible to see the entire city as well as some of the neighboring bays.[10]
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Model of the Yassiada vessel (Byzantine, 7th century)
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Egyptian jewelry (Uluburun shipwreck)
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Collection of amphoras from different parts of the Mediterranean
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Bodrum Museum Carian Princess 3656
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Bodrum Museum Carian Princess 3664
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Bodrum Museum Carian Princess 3661
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Bodrum Museum Carian Princess 3659
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Bodrum Museum Carian Princess 3665
See also
- Halicarnassus
- Uluburun Shipwreck
- Order of Malta
Notes
- ^ "The Bodrum Castle". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. UNESCO. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
- ISBN 0-19-517068-7
- ISBN 978-2-35035-279-4
- ISBN 978-2-35035-279-4
- ISBN 978-0-500-18125-6.
- ^ "Bodrum Museum". Bodrum Museum. 2010-03-23. Retrieved 2012-06-26.
- JSTOR 1005978.
- ^ "The Uluburun shipwreck (in Res Maritimae: Cyprus and Eastern Mediterranean from Prehistory to Late Antiquity". Cyprus American Research Institute Monograph Series. 1: 233–262. 1997.
- ^ Alpözen, T. O.; A. H. Özdaş & B. Berkaya. (1995). Commercial Amphoras of the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology. Ankara: Dönmez Offset.
- ^ "Bodrum". Archived from the original on 2017-08-04. Retrieved 2017-02-07.
External links
- Underwater Archeology Museum (Ministry of Culture and Tourism website)
- Bodrum museum virtual tour (pop-up on Ministry of Culture and Tourism website)
- Bodrum Castle information, photos and map of Bodrum Castle