The Arabat Fortress, built in the 17th century by the Ottoman army, stands at the southernmost part of the

Arabat Spit The Arabat Spit (; ; ) or Arabat Arrow is a spit (landform), barrier spit that separates the large, shallow, salty Syvash lagoons from the Sea of Azov. The spit runs between the Henichesk Strait in the north and the north-eastern shores of Crim ...

.Arabat Foretress
(in Russian) Its purpose was to guard the spit and

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

from invasions.Semenov, p.111 It was in use, with intermissions, until the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

of 1853–1856.

Name

The name of the Arabat Fortress originates from either Arabic "rabat", meaning a "military post", or Turkic " arabat" meaning a "suburb", and is the origin of the name of the Arabat Spit.Shutov
Introduction

History

Background: classical antiquity

There is information about a fortification that stood at the site during the times of the

Bosporan Kingdom The Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (; ), was an ancient Greco-Scythians, Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, centered in the present-day ...

(the kingdom existed between the 5th century BCE – 4th century CE).Shutov
Part 1

Ottoman fortress

The 1475 Turkish invasion of Crimea rang the death knell of the

Genoese colonies The Genoese colonies were a series of economic and trade posts in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and Black Seas. Some of them had been established directly under the patronage of the republican authorities to support the economy of the loca ...

there, leading to the destruction of the Genoese fortresses on the peninsula. The Turks built or rebuilt fortresses in all strategically important points of the peninsula, their main fortresses being

Or Qapi Or Qapi Fortress is a ruined fort located near the settlement of Perekop on the Perekop isthmus connecting the Crimean peninsula to the Ukrainian mainland. History The Or Qapi fort was built in the 15th century by Mengli Girai and his s ...

Perekop Perekop ( Ukrainian & Russian: Перекоп; ; ) is a village located on the Perekop Isthmus connecting the Crimean peninsula to the Ukrainian mainland. It is known for the Or Qapi fortress, which served as the gateway to Crimea. The villa ...

, Arabat,

Yeni-Kale Yeni-Kale (; ; ; , also spelled as ''Yenikale'' and ''Eni-Kale'' and ''Yeni-Kaleh'' or ''Yéni-Kaleb'') is a fortress on the shore of Kerch Strait in the city of Kerch. History In the ancient period in this area was the ancient Greek town of Myrm ...

on the

Kerch Strait The Kerch Strait is a strait in Eastern Europe. It connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea in the west from the Taman Peninsula of Russia's Krasnodar Krai in the east. The strait is to wide and up ...

Gözleve Yevpatoria (; ; ; ) is a city in western Crimea, north of Kalamita Bay. Yevpatoria serves as the administrative center of Yevpatoria Municipality, one of the districts (''raions'') into which Crimea is divided. It had a population of Hist ...

, and

Kefe Feodosia (, ''Feodosiia, Teodosiia''; , ''Feodosiya''), also called in English Theodosia (from ), is a city on the Crimean coast of the Black Sea. Feodosia serves as the administrative center of Feodosia Municipality, one of the regions into w ...

. The fortress was probably built in the second half of the 17th century by the Turkish army and was first depicted on a map compiled by

Jacob von Sandrart Jacob von Sandrart (3 May 1630, Frankfurt am Main – 15 August 1708, Nuremberg) was a German engraver primarily active in Nuremberg. At age ten Sandrart obtained his artistic training from his better-known uncle Joachim von Sandrart in Amsterd ...

in 1651. This map was based on material collected by French military engineer and

cartographer Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...

Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan Guillaume Levasseur de Beauplan ( – 6 December 1673) or William le Vasseur de Beauplan was a French-Polish cartographer, engineer and architect. Beauplan is best known for his maps of Ukraine (which he spelt as ''Ukranie'' or ''Vkranie'', wi ...

, author of the 1651 book ''Description d'Ukranie''. The fortress had a relatively advanced military design, is octagonal in shape with 3-meter thick stone walls, and was surrounded by an earthen wall and a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

. It contained five towers and two gates. Several rows of

embrasures An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions ( merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a space hollowed out ...

faced east, north and west and were designed for various artillery types. Whereas the fortress was hard to conquer when properly defended, its remote location from Turkey meant that its garrison was often understaffed, allowing Russian troops to bypass it in

1737 Events January–March * January 5 – Spain and the Holy Roman Empire sign instruments of cession at Pontremoli in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in Italy, with the Empire receiving control of Tuscany and the Grand Duchy of Parm ...

and to take it by storm in

1771 Events January– March * January 5 – The Great Kalmyk (Torghut) Migration is led by Ubashi Khan, from the east bank of the Lower Volga River back to the homeland of Dzungaria, at this time under Qing dynasty rule. * January ...

. Prior to that, it was plundered by the

Zaporozhian Cossacks The Zaporozhian Cossacks (in Latin ''Cossacorum Zaporoviensis''), also known as the Zaporozhian Cossack Army or the Zaporozhian Host (), were Cossacks who lived beyond (that is, downstream from) the Dnieper Rapids. Along with Registered Cossa ...

1667 Events January–March * January 11 – Aurangzeb, monarch of the Mughal Empire, orders the removal of Rao Karan Singh as Maharaja of the Bikaner State (part of the modern-day Rajasthan state of India) because of Karan's derelic ...

Russian Empire

After Crimea became part of Russia in 1783, the fortress was abandoned, but was later refurbished and used by Russians during the Crimean War of 1853–1856 to defend the Crimean coast. After the war, the fortress was again abandoned and its walls were used by the people of the nearby small village of Arabat as a source of stone.

Soviet Union

The Arabat Spit saw again heavy fighting between the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and the

White Army The White Army, also known as the White Guard, the White Guardsmen, or simply the Whites, was a common collective name for the armed formations of the White movement and Anti-Sovietism, anti-Bolshevik governments during the Russian Civil War. T ...

in 1920 and the

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in 1941–1944. In 1968, some scenes of a famous Soviet film, ''

Two Comrades Were Serving ''Two Comrades Were Serving'' (, translit. ''Sluzhili dva tovarishcha'') is a 1968 Soviet war film directed by Yevgeny Karelov with a script by Yuli Dunsky and Valeri Frid. The film is about the Russian Civil War, in particular, the battle f ...

'', were shot there.

Ukraine

Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

satellite imagery shows the fort has been occupied by military forces since the

Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, and then annexed it. This took place in the relative power vacuum immediately following the Revolution of Dignity. It marked the beginning of the Russ ...

in 2014.

References

{{Tourist attractions in Crimea Forts in Ukraine Buildings and structures in Crimea Tourist attractions in Crimea