Gaziantep Castle () is a

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

on top of a mound in the centre of

Gaziantep Gaziantep, historically Aintab and still informally called Antep, is a major city in south-central Turkey. It is the capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Medi ...

, Turkey. First used as an observation point during the

Hittite Empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...

, it was expanded into a castle during

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

rule. The castle was severely damaged by earthquakes in February 2023.

History

The hilltop was first used as an observation point by the Hittite Empire. It was later expanded into a main castle by the Roman Empire in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.Defence Sites II: Heritage and Future
/ref> It underwent further expansion and renovation under

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

Emperor

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

between AD 527 and 565. The circumference of the round shaped castle is . The walls are built of stone and the castle has 12

bastion A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

s. The castle has been renovated numerous times. It saw changes made during the reign of the

Ayyubids The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish ori ...

in the 12th and 13th centuries, as well as the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, and played an important role during the

Turkish War of Independence , strength1 = May 1919: 35,000November 1920: 86,000Turkish General Staff, ''Türk İstiklal Harbinde Batı Cephesi'', Edition II, Part 2, Ankara 1999, p. 225August 1922: 271,000Celâl Erikan, Rıdvan Akın: ''Kurtuluş Savaşı tarih ...

of the early 20th century. It is used as the Gaziantep Defence and Heroism Panoramic Museum, and a documentary regarding the defence of the city against the French forces after the fall of the Ottoman Empire runs periodically. On 6 February 2023, the castle was severely damaged by two consecutive earthquakes. Some of the eastern and southern bastions collapsed, and iron railings and walls around the castle were seriously damaged. Restoration work began in September 2023 with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and it is estimated that the castle will open its doors to tourists at the end of 2024.

Gallery

References

{{Castles in Turkey Castles in Turkey Buildings and structures in Gaziantep Tourist attractions in Gaziantep Province Ruined castles in Turkey Ancient Roman architecture Buildings and structures destroyed by the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake