Bagras or Baghrās, ancient Pagrae (; ), is a town and its nearby castle in the

İskenderun İskenderun (), historically known as Alexandretta (, ) and Scanderoon, is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Hatay Province, Turkey. Its area is 247 km2, and its population is 251,682 (2022). It is on the Mediterranean coas ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, in the Amanus Mountains.

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

's ''

Geographica The ''Geographica'' (, ''Geōgraphiká''; or , "Strabo's 17 Books on Geographical Topics") or ''Geography'', is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books', written in Greek in the late 1st century BC, or early 1st cen ...

'' mentions it as being on the borders of Gindarus, "a natural stronghold" leading to the

Amanian Gate The Amanian Gate () or Bahçe Pass (), also known as the Amanus Pass or Amanides Pylae (Ἀμανίδες or Ἀμανικαί Πύλαι 'Amanus Gates'), is a mountain pass located on the border between Osmaniye Province, Osmaniye and Gaziantep P ...

or ''Amanides Pylae'' over the Amanus Mountains.

History of the castle

Early Medieval period

According to the Arab historian

Al-Baladhuri ʾAḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Balādhurī () was a 9th-century West Asian historian. One of the eminent Middle Eastern historians of his age, he spent most of his life in Baghdad and enjoyed great influence at the court of the caliph al ...

, a massacre occurred in this place around the year 638 when 30,000

Ghassanid The Ghassanids, also known as the Jafnids, were an Arab tribe. Originally from South Arabia, they migrated to the Levant in the 3rd century and established what would eventually become a Christian kingdom under the aegis of the Byzantine Empi ...

Arabs and their families were trying to escape the Muslim invasion of Syria but were attacked by the forces of Maisarah ibn Masruk, who had been sent in pursuit by Abu Ubaydah. This is likely exaggerated as many of these tribesmen would later serve in the Byzantine army. The castle of Pagrae was erected c. 965 by the Byzantine emperor

Nikephoros II Phokas Nikephoros II Phokas (; – 11 December 969), Latinized Nicephorus II Phocas, was Byzantine emperor from 963 to 969. His career, not uniformly successful in matters of statecraft or of war, nonetheless greatly contributed to the resurgence of t ...

, who stationed there 1000 footmen and 500 horsemen under the command of Michael Bourtzes to raid the countryside of the nearby city of Antioch. The castle provided a base for a force to cover the

. It was built in two levels around a knoll, the fortification resembling

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

work, and with water supplied by aqueducts. It is likely, that the Armenian monastic 'community of Jesus' (Yesuank‘/Yisuank‘) was located in the vicinity of the castle and was destroyed by the 1114 Marash earthquake. Baghras1

High Medieval period

It was then rebuilt about 1153 by the

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

under the name Gaston (also Gastun, Guascon, Gastim) and held by them or by the

Principality of Antioch The Principality of Antioch (; ) was one of the Crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and History of Syria#Medieval era, Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of ...

until it was forced to capitulate to

Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...

on 26 August 1189. It was retaken in 1191 by the Armenians (under Leo II), and their possession of it became a major point of contention between them and the Antiochenes and Templars. The castle remained under Armenian control until 1215, when it was taken back by the Templars who held the castle until the 1268 conquest of Antioch.Upton-Ward, Judi. “The Surrender of Gaston and the Rule of the Templars.” In The Military Orders, 1:179–88. Ashgate, 1994. According to the Armenian chronicle of Sempad the Constable, around 1229 Bagras withstood a siege by Al-Aziz, the emir of Aleppo, and his cavalry. After Baibars besieged and conquered Antioch in 1268, the garrison lost heart, and one of the brothers deserted and presented the keys of the castle to him. The remaining defenders decided to destroy what they could and surrender the castle. The brothers then fled to the nearby Templar stronghold of La Roche Guillaume before leaving to

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

to confess their abandonment and subsequent loss of the castle. It was decided that the brothers would not be expelled from the order, but would face the next harshest punishment of losing their habits for a year and a day. The record of this trial survives in a late thirteenth century Catalan copy of the Rule of the Templars. Despite the loss of the castle, Hethum II, King of Armenia and Leo IV, King of Armenia soundly defeated a

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

raiding force in the nearby pass in 1305. The first detailed historical and archaeological evaluation, including a surveyed plan of the entire complex, was completed in 1979 by R. W. Edwards.Robert W. Edwards, “Bağras and Armenian Cilicia: A Reassessment,” ''Revue des Études Arméniennes'' 17, 1983, pp. 415-455. The fortification has more than thirty chambers which encompass the steep outcrop on three primary levels. Although the site initially had phases of Arab and Byzantine construction, most of the exterior masonry is from the Frankish occupations. Repairs to the towers and walls were made by the Armenians with their distinctive masonry during brief periods of control. Bağras was never integrated into the complex defensive system that the Armenians built along the Taurus and Anti-Taurus Mountains of Cilicia from the 12th through the 14th centuries.

External links

Picture of Bagras today

Gaston castle at Forteresses d'Orient

Extensive photographic survey and plan of Bağras Castle

References

{{Castles in Turkey Crusader castles Castles and fortifications of the Knights Templar Buildings and structures in Hatay Province İskenderun Byzantine fortifications in Turkey 10th-century fortifications