Kastamonu Castle is a medieval castle in

Kastamonu Kastamonu is the capital district of the Kastamonu Province, Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 102,059 of which 64,606 live in the urban center of Kastamonu. (Population of the urban center in 2010 is 91,012.) The ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Geography

The castle lies inside the urban fabric of the modern city. It is situated slightly to the south west of the city center at an elevation of about .

History

During the 10th century, the area around Kastamonu was under the rule of the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

commander

Manuel Erotikos Komnenos Manuel Erotikos Komnenos ( gr, Μανουήλ Ἐρωτικός Κομνηνός, Manouēl Erōtikos Komnēnos; 955/960 – ) was a Byzantine military leader under Basil II, and the first fully documented ancestor of the Komnenos dynasty. His or ...

who built the castle bearing his name: ''Kastra Komnenon'', "Castle of the Komnenoi", a corrupted version of which later became the name of the city in Turkish, i.e. Kastamonu. The city and the castle was captured by the Çobanoğlu on behalf of the

Seljuks of Rum fa, سلجوقیان روم () , status = , government_type = Hereditary monarchyTriarchy (1249–1254)Diarchy (1257–1262) , year_start = 1077 , year_end = 1308 , p1 = By ...

. After the Çobanoğlu, the castle fell to the Candarid beylik and finally to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. During the

Turkish Republic Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

era, in 1943, a part of the castle was destroyed as a result of

1943 Tosya–Ladik earthquake The 1943 Tosya–Ladik earthquake occurred at 00:20 local time on 27 November, near Tosya, Kastamonu Province, in northern Turkey. The earthquake had an estimated moment magnitude of 7.5 and a maximum felt intensity of between IX–X (''Viol ...

. In 2005 Kastamonu municipality partially restored the castle.Karged page
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Building

The original castle had fortification walls around the city. But presently only the inner castle which was restored during the Candarid era is partially standing.
/ref> The north to south dimension of the castle is and the width is (narrowest) and (widest). There are 15 bastions and a secret passage to the outer castle.

References

{{coord, 41, 22, 28, N, 33, 46, 11, E, display=title History of Kastamonu Byzantine fortifications in Turkey Byzantine Anatolia Buildings and structures in Kastamonu Province Ruined castles in Turkey Former buildings and structures in Turkey 10th-century establishments in the Byzantine Empire