Rumelian Fort or “Fortress on the Land of the Romans”

by timistravels on February 10, 2013

We were unaware of the fort when we were planning our trip to Istanbul, but the day we took the Bosphorus Sea tour we saw the fort from the water, and came home to investigate how to get there. It is built on the hill on the European side of the narrowest part of the Bosporus. From notes we read on line it wasn’t going to be that hard, we took the blue line to the end and then hopped on bus 23, the return was the opposite but the bus to take us back was 22. The fort is open every day except Wednesdays from 9:00 to 4:30 though they did not ‘kick’ us out until after 5:00.

The fort was amazing mostly because as we explored it we learned that it was built in 4 months, and 16 days, the entire thing was built between April and August in 1452, it took thousands of people to do it this quickly. It was built so that the water traffic could be monitored. There are 3 main gates by each large tower. The towers and the walls are 16-50 feet tall. Inside there are 15 other smaller towers of different shapes and sizes.

We, with our American frame of reference, were shocked by the lack of railings or handrails in the fort. We were able to climb many of the steps, but I must admit there were moments I worried about falling off! We actually spoke to an American lawyer there who said “In the states this is how I make a lot of money, this is a lawsuit waiting to happen.” Not in Turkey dude!

The Saruca Pasha Tower is so large that it has 7 floors and is over 90 feet tall, and amazingly 30 feet thick.

After it was no longer used as a ‘fort’ it was:

a customs check point after the fall of Constantinople,
a prison in the 17^th Century.
in 1509 destroyed part of the fort
in 1746 a fire took out all the wood in the towers.
In 1960 it became a museum and the outdoor theatre is used for concerts throughout the summer.
You can see the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge from the fort and it was lit up at night as we left for home.