Kastamonu Castle

Kastamonu Castle occupies the top of a rocky hill directly above the old town. It was founded in the tenth century under the Byzantines, and its construction is linked to the commander Manuel Erotikos Komnenos: from Kastra Komnenon, that is the castle of the Komnenoi, came the name of the town itself. Later the hill passed to the Seljuks, then to the Candaroglu dynasty, under whom the citadel was rebuilt, and finally to the Ottomans. The fortification stretches about a hundred and fifty-five metres from north to south and is thirty to fifty metres wide; the ring of walls is reckoned to hold some fifteen towers and an underground passage that led to the outer defences. The earthquake of 1943 brought down a significant part of the masonry, and what has come down largely whole is the inner citadel, partly restored in the mid-2000s. A paved street and a pointed-arch gate lead up, and behind them opens a terrace with a view over the whole town: white Ottoman houses under tiled roofs, minarets and green hills around the valley. Kastamonu was the capital of the Candaroglu beylik for almost a hundred years, and the castle served as its main stronghold in northern Anatolia.

Address

Araç Caddesi, Saraçlar, Kastamonu

On the map