Anadolu Citadel

About Anadolu Citadel

Fortress in Istanbul, Turkey

Anadolu Hisari, the Anatolian Fortress, known historically as Guzelce Hisar, the Beauteous Fortress, is a medieval Ottoman fortress on the Asian side of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, at the mouth of the Goksu creek in the Beykoz district, and the neighbourhood around it bears its name. Sultan Bayezid I, the Thunderbolt, built it in 1393–1394 as part of his preparations for the second Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1395, and it is the oldest surviving Turkish building in Istanbul. The fortress stands at the narrowest point of the Bosphorus, where the strait is only 660 metres wide, to control shipping through the channel, and later worked in tandem with Rumeli Hisari, built by Mehmed the Conqueror on the opposite European shore some fifty years afterwards, before the conquest. It consists of a main inner keep surrounded by walls and smaller towers; parts fell into disrepair over time and were restored in the 1990s. The interior is closed, but its setting between the water and the traditional wooden waterside mansions (yali) of the Anadolu Hisari village makes it a pleasant stop on a Bosphorus trip, seen from the ferries and from a small park on the shore.

Where:

Istanbul, Türkiye