Al-Saraya al-Hamra Fortress, Tripoli (5282695461)

The Red Castle, in Arabic As-saraya Al-hamra (), sometimes also Red Fort or Red Saraya, is a major landmark on the waterfront of

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

, bordering Martyrs' Square. It has been the home of the

Red Castle Museum The Red Castle Museum, also known as As-saraya Al-hamra Museum ( ar, متحف السرايا الحمراء), the Archaeological Museum of Tripoli or Jamahiriya Museum, is a national museum in Libya. It is located in the historic building known as ...

(under various names) since 1919, and of the Libyan Department of Archaeology since 1952.

Description

The Red Castle used to be located directly on the sea. In the 1970s, the building of the seafront highway (Al-Shat Road) resulted in the creation of the Saraya Lake, as the castle was cut off from the sea. The building is bordered by the Saraya Lake to the northeast, the

Central Bank of Libya The Central Bank of Libya (CBL) is the monetary authority in Libya. It has the status of an autonomous corporate body. The law establishing the CBL stipulates that the objectives of the central bank shall be to maintain monetary stability in Liby ...

to the northwest, the Souq al-Mushir neighborhood around the Karamanli Mosque to the southwest, and Martyrs' Square to the southeast. The castle forms an imperfect square with sides of unequal length: 115 meters (north-east), 90 meters (north-west), 130 meters (south-west), and 140 meters (south-east). Its area is about 13,000 square meters. There are several buildings and courtyards inside the castle's walls.

History

The origins of the castle may be as old as the Phoenician foundation of

Oea Oea () was an ancient city in present-day Tripoli, Libya. It was founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC and later became a Roman– Berber colony. As part of the Roman Africa Nova province, Oea and surrounding Tripolitania were p ...

in the 7th century BCE; excavations have found remains dating back to

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

. Like the surrounded region, it was taken over by the Vandal Kingdom around 439, recovered by the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

in 534, overrun by

Amr ibn al-As ( ar, عمرو بن العاص السهمي; 664) was the Arab commander who led the Muslim conquest of Egypt and served as its governor in 640–646 and 658–664. The son of a wealthy Qurayshite, Amr embraced Islam in and was assigned impo ...

in 642 or 643, reconquered by the Byzantines then again by the

Umayyad Caliphate The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...

in the late 7th century; then under the rule of the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

s (750-800), the Aghlabid Emirate of Ifriqiya (800-909), the

Fatimid Caliphate The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the ea ...

(10th century) who refurbished it into a royal residence, the Zirid Emirate of Ifriqiya and Banu Khazrun (11th century-1146), the Norman Kingdom of Africa (1146-58), the

Almohad Caliphate The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the Tawhid, unity of God) was a North African Berbers, Berber M ...

(1158-1229), the Hafsid Emirate of Ifriqiya (1234-1321), the Beni Ammar (1321-1401) and again the Hafsid Emirate (1401-1510, with another lapse in the mid-15th century). In 1510 Tripoli was conquered by the

Kingdom of Aragon The Kingdom of Aragon ( an, Reino d'Aragón, ca, Regne d'Aragó, la, Regnum Aragoniae, es, Reino de Aragón) was a medieval and early modern kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, ...

. Much of the current structures appear to date from the subsequent period of rule by Aragonese military commanders and, after 1530, by the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic Church, Catholic Military ord ...

until their expulsion by 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) ...

following the

Siege of Tripoli (1551) The siege of Tripoli occurred in 1551 when the Ottoman Turks and Barbary pirates besieged and vanquished the Knights of Malta in the Red Castle of Tripoli, modern Libya. The Spanish had established an outpost in Tripoli in 1510, and Charle ...

. The castle is also said to have been painted red

ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

during that time, thus its current name. The first Ottoman governor or

Pasha of Tripoli Pasha of Tripoli was a title that was held by many rulers of Tripoli in Ottoman Tripolitania. The Ottoman Empire ruled the territory for most time from the Siege of Tripoli in 1551 until the Italian invasion of Libya in 1911, at the onset of ...

, Murād Agha, converted the castle's Church of Saint Leonard into a mosque, and subsequent governors made the building into their residence. As such, the castle was the center of power under

Ahmed Karamanli Ahmed or Ahmed Karamanli or Qaramanli or al-Qaramanli, (most commonly Ahmed Karamanli) (1686–1745) was of Janissary origin and a Member from the Karamanids.The City in the Islamic world, Volume 1, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Renata Holod, Attilio Pet ...

and the

Karamanli dynasty The Karamanli, Caramanli, Qaramanli, or al-Qaramanli dynasty was an early modern dynasty, independent or quasi-independent, which ruled from 1711 to 1835 in Ottoman Tripolitania. The territory comprised Tripoli and its surroundings in present- ...

(1711-1835). After the Italian conquest of Libya in 1911, the castle was initially used as residence for the Italian governor-general. In 1919 it was converted into a museum, the first in Libya's history. In 1922-23 it was correspondingly refurbished along designs by architect

Armando Brasini Armando Brasini (Rome, 21 September 1879 - Rome, 18 February 1965) was a prominent Italian architect and urban designer of the early twentieth century and exemplar of Fascist architecture. His work is notable for its eclectic and visionary style i ...

, who took a creative approach to its renovation. Brasini modified the Saint George Bastion to a more medieval appearance, created a new (albeit ancient-looking) entrance portal, and built the castle's iconic arches above the eastern (Saint James) bastion, originally facing the sea and now on the Saraya Lake. Brasini's initial plan was to have even more arches built, including a second level above the ones that were constructed. In the 1930s, governor

Italo Balbo Italo Balbo (6 June 1896 – 28 June 1940) was an Italian fascist politician and Blackshirts' leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force, Governor-General of Libya and Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa. Due to his young a ...

established his office inside the building. On 5 November 1938, Balbo inaugurated an

equestrian statue An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a d ...

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

in front of the castle. The castle was protected under the British Military Administration from 1942, and the British authorities reopened an expanded museum in 1948. The museum was again refurbished under

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

between 1982 and 1988. The building and museum only suffered minor damage during the

First Libyan Civil War The First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust his government. It erupted with the Libya ...

in 2011. The museum was closed in 2015 but had reopened by 2021.

Gallery

File:Tripoli's Independence Square in 1950's.jpg, Aerial view in the 1950s File:Gaddafi Green Square Tripoli.jpg, Main façade (Saint George Bastion) with banner celebrating

, 1 April 2007 File:Red castle.JPG, Sculpture of

Saint George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...

on the Saint George Bastion, from the 1920s renovation File:National Museum, Tripoli (5282695467).jpg, Arches created by

on the Saint James Bastion File:Tripoli Castle Libya interior.jpg, Interior street File:The Red Castle.jpg, View across the Saraya Lake (originally seaside front)

Notes

{{coord, 32.8961, 13.1804, type:landmark_region:LY, display=title History of Tripoli Forts in Libya Buildings and structures in Tripoli Knights Hospitaller Italian Libya

Description

History

Gallery

See also

Notes