Three of the now-restored castles on the Gallipoli Peninsula had a vital place within the safety of the Dardanelles strait in the course of the nation’s War of Independence. The newest to be restored, Seddülbahir Castle, is ready to reopen for guests on Çanakkale Victory and Martyrs’ Day on March 18, 2023.
War-weary veterans’ Kilitbahir and Bigalı castles, which witnessed the traces of the bloodiest conflict in historical past by which the Çanakkale epic was written, have been opened to guests as museums in 2018 and 2022, whereas the third citadel, Seddülbahır, is ready to open in March 2023, the 12 months that marks a centesimal anniversary of the Turkish republic.
The metropolis of Çanakkale and its strait, which has hosted varied cultures, has at all times been protected by castles constructed on the European and Anatolian sides all through historical past attributable to their geopolitical significance.
Ismail Kaşdemir, the top of the Çanakkale Wars Gallipoli Historical Site, stated that Çanakkale is a metropolis of castles and that Çanakkale’s castles are ”historic veteran locations that witnessed historical past.” It is thought that these three castles, along with the bravery of Turk troopers in World War I, offered resilience and impressed the well-known phrase “Çanakkale is impassable.”
Kilitbahir Castle
Kilitbahir Castle, whose restoration took seven years, was opened to guests by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 18, 2018, as Türkiye’s first residing museum citadel. The citadel, designed within the form of a three-leaf clover, was constructed by Fatih Sultan Mehmet within the village of Kilitbahir, on the narrowest a part of the Bosporus in 1462-1463. The citadel greets the ships passing by the Bosporus with its magnificent look and evokes guests with “its heroism.”
From the lifetime of well-known Ottoman sailor Piri Reis to the each day life within the court docket, from the structure and the protection model attribute of the Ottoman period, to commerce and worship, all the pieces within the citadel (in its Yellow Tower and 7-floor Main Tower) is defined to the guests with fashionable expertise.
Bigali Castle
Bigali Castle, whose development began in the course of the reign of Sultan Selim III in 1807 and was accomplished in the course of the reign of Sultan Mahmut II. in 1820, was used because the Corps Esliha (Weapon) Repair Shop in the course of the Çanakkale conflict.
The 203-year-old citadel underwent restoration and show installations beginning in 2017 by the work of the Presidency of Gallipoli Historical Sites. After 5 years of labor, it was inaugurated by Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy on April 24, on the 107th anniversary of the Çanakkale Land Wars in 2022.
Seddülbahir Castle
Seddülbahir Castle, the third citadel on the historic Gallipoli Peninsula, which was closely broken by the artillery shells fired from the ships that needed to cross the Dardanelles in World War I, was additionally broken attributable to pure circumstances within the intervening interval of a century.
The restoration and landscaping work on this citadel initiated in 2015 by the Presidency of Gallipoli Historical Sites to revive the ruined citadel and switch it into an open-air museum is sort of full. When the Seddülbahir Castle Museum is totally accomplished and inaugurated, guests might be knowledgeable concerning the citadel’s historical past from the seventeenth century to the current.
Meanwhile, the scientific advisory board, attended by the school members of Istanbul Technical University and Koç University, continues to work on the stock of 45,477 artifacts, primarily army conflict supplies, of various qualities, in the course of the archaeological excavations carried out in the course of the restoration purposes.
Seddülbahir Castle was remodeled into an open-air museum when the ultimate exhibition association, further constructions, electromechanical parts, lighting, infrastructure and landscaping works have been accomplished. It might be opened to guests on March 18, 2023. This is when the 108th Çanakkale Naval Victory might be celebrated within the 12 months that marks the a centesimal anniversary of the republic.
After opening, guests will be capable of study the occasions of the 1915 Çanakkale battles that came about on this citadel, get to know conflict supplies and paperwork courting to that interval, and as nicely to go to the cemetery the place the primary martyrs of Çanakkale gave their lives preventing the Allied forces.
Stating that Çanakkale is a metropolis of castles, Çanakkale Wars Gallipoli Historical Sites Director Ismail Kaşdemir stated: “The castles of Çanakkale are very important protection constructions that make sure the safety of the Dardanelles. They are historic locations the place the footsteps and reminiscences of nice heroes are discovered. As the Presidency of the History Area, we began the restoration course of of those heroic locations and veteran castles in Çanakkale. All of those are a type of ‘residing’ citadel museums.”
Sharing that the method of resurrecting the castles started with Kilitbahir Castle, Kaşdemir additionally stated: ”Kilitbahir Castle, the heirloom of Fatih Sultan Mehmet, is a veteran place of the Çanakkale battles. It has began to serve our guests as a citadel museum on this land the place the spirit of Çanakkale is now felt, after a vital and delightful restoration course of.”
“Bigali Castle, which was used as a gun repair shop, where the users and weapons were repaired during the Çanakkale Wars, was opened to visitors last year and started to serve as a castle museum,” he additionally famous.
Reiterating that the restoration works proceed in Seddülbahir Castle inside the framework of the continued efforts to revive the “Gazi” (Veteran) castles, Kaşdemir continued his assertion: “I hope we will put our Seddülbahir Castle into service on March 18, 2023. Seddülbahir Castle, which is the heirloom of the 4th Mehmet, Hatice Turhan Sultan’s heirloom, is a historical place. It is also the place where the first martyrs of Çanakkale gave their lives. These castles have been inherited from our ancestors. They additionally witnessed important occasions in the course of the Çanakkale Wars.”
Emphasizing that the presidency additionally works on preserving ancestral relics and historic locations, Kaşdemir identified that they purpose to switch the significance of the good sacrifice and spirit of Çanakkale to future generations. ”As the Presidency of the Historic Areas, we’ll at all times shield our historical past, ancestral heirlooms, veteran’s locations castles, bastions, and trenches, as a result of our historical past is nice. These are golden pages in our historical past,” he added.
Noting that Çanakkale is the preamble of the Turkish republic, ”our widespread worth,” the place the place the founding father of the republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, took the stage in historical past, Kaşdemir referred to as on all the kids of the Turkish nation to recollect the spirit of Çanakkale.
