In keeping with our desire while we’re in Istanbul to see as much as we can of its Ottoman history, we decided we would go visit the Rumeli Fortress. We had already seen it while on a Bosporus boat tour, and it looked pretty spectacular from the water. So although we’re not usually that interested in military matters (though we did like the military museum), and have visited several fortresses that left us cold, we’re glad we made the effort to get to this one.
It was a little tricky getting to the Rumeli fortress. We expected to take the ferry, but couldn’t find one that stopped nearby. It turns out that Google maps is very bad when it comes to ferries – i.e., they don’t seem to know of their existence, at least in Istanbul. So we decided to take the Metro to what looked like a very short distance from the fortress. It was, as the crow flies, but not being crows we had to take the long way around and found ourselves going down some of the most precipitous streets we’ve experienced so far. (Istanbul is very hilly.) We did eventually get there but it took a ridiculous amount of time.
The fortress is the brainchild of Memhed the Conqueror, who planned it as his first step in his assault on Constantinople. He had recognized that previous attempts to take the city failed because the Ottomans could not control the Bosporus. And it was through the Bosporus that the Genoese colonies on the Black Sea, during previous attempts to take the city, sent supplies. So control of the waterway was necessary if Mehmed was to starve Constantinople into submission.
Mehmed chose the narrowest part of the Bosporus, where it is only 2,170 feet (660 metres) from the Asian side. (The nickname of the Rumeli fortress, Boğazkesen, means ‘strait-cutter’ but also ‘throat-cutter’.) There was already a fortress on that side, the Anatolian fortress, which Sultan Bayezid I built 150 years earlier. With the two fortresses Mehmed was certain he could blockade the Bosporus.
When you look at the fortress it is hard to believe that it took only four months to build: April to August 1452. Mehmed personally supervised the building of the walls. Once built, he stationed 400 Janissaries in it and a lot of cannons. The Ottomans used the cannons to bombard any ship that tried to sail past them. A few successful sinkings here and there led the allies of Constantinople to abandon the Bosporus as a supply route.
On the day we visited, we found out that the entire fortress was undergoing renovation. (Bright yellow coverings surrounded the main towers!) Only a small section of the Rumeli fortress was open, but even this was extremely impressive. There is a lovely garden inside, and what appears to be a kind of amphitheatre, with a small mosque. The fortress displays cannons from all periods of Ottoman rule, including up until the 19th century. Alas, ths meant that we could not get the fantastic views that we have seen in pictures.
Still, it was certainly worth the trip, given what we did see. And it is always exciting to see an important part of history, even if it was wrapped in yellow plastic!
