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- Title
TRABZON İÇ KALE’DE (YUKARI HİSAR) KANUNİ SULTAN SÜLEYMAN DEVRİ’NDE YAPILAN SUR DUVARI ONARIMLARI HAKKINDA BAZI TESPİTLER.
- Authors
YAVUZ, Mehmet
- Abstract
As a walled city, the historical city of Trabzon was composed of three different parts, namely the Lower Castle, Middle Castle, and Upper Castle. The Upper Fortress, also known as the Inner Castle, holds the utmost strategic importance since the administrative center and palace organizations were located here during the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Komnenid, and Ottoman periods. The first objective of Mehmed the Conqueror when he captured Trabzon on August 15, 1461, was to take over control of the Upper Castle, where the Komnenid imperial palace was located. According to H. W. Lowry, who based his information on the accounts of the Byzantine chronicler Kritovoulos, upon David Komnenos’ acceptance of the surrendering conditions set by Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, Mahmut Pasha first entered the Inner Castle with his soldiers to completely take over the castle by taking the necessary security measures before the entrance of the Sultan. Then, Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror entered the castle, examined the imperial palace and other buildings, and took measures to ensure the security of the city. With the conquest in 1461, both the city of Trabzon as the Komnenid capital and the lands under its control were taken over by the Ottoman Empire, and the members of the Komnenid Dynasty were sent to Istanbul. The imperial palace and related buildings, as well as other structures of administrative character located in the Inner Castle, became the administrative center for Kasım Pasha, the Governor of Gallipoli, who was appointed to the administration of the newly conquered city. This situation continued until the 17th century. Although the city’s symbolic churches, namely the Church of Panaghia Chrysokephalos Church and the Church of St. Eugenios, were converted into mosques under the names of Büyük Fatih Cami and Yeni Cuma Cami, respectively, the first mosque in the Islamized city was built within the Inner Castle, known as Inner Castle Mosque (İç Kale Cami/ Şirin Hatun Cami), in 1470. Ottoman state officials continued to reside in the Inner Castle. Another important point indicating the continued use of the Inner Castle as an administrative center during the Ottoman period is the repair of the weak parts of the fortifications. Accordingly, determining the location of the repaired city wall, analyzing its structural features in terms of material selection, construction technique, and the concept of art, and introducing the vaulted space detected in the interior of the renovated city wall, as well as correcting the inaccurate information put forward about this section in previous publications, are among the main objectives of the article. Before the discussion of the subject, previous discussions were outlined in the section entitled “Research Status and Primary Sources,” followed by the correction of inaccurate information that appeared in several past publications with new evidence. This section also delves into the detailed discussion of newly discovered written sources from the Ottoman Archives of the State Archives Directorate. Based on the new finds recovered from archaeological excavations initiated in the Inner Castle in 2021, the final section of this paper provides some suggestions and thoughts on the turning of the Inner Castle area into an archaeological park that could illuminate the historical past of Trabzon and revitalize the city’s potential in tourism
- Subjects
TRABZON (Turkey); STATE government archives; ARCHAEOLOGICAL excavations; SEVENTEENTH century; CASTLES; SULTANS
- Publication
Journal of Art History / Sanat Tarihi Dergisi, 2024, Vol 33, Issue 1, p139
- ISSN
1300-5707
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.29135/std.1403887