Ardahan Castle: Ottoman Fortress on the Kura

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1. What is Ardahan Castle?
2. How do you get to Ardahan Castle?
3. When is the best time to visit Ardahan Castle?
4. What is the history of Ardahan Castle?
5. What is Ardahan Castle famous for?
6. What can you see at Ardahan Castle?
7. Frequently asked questions about Ardahan Castle
8. What do the official records say about Ardahan Castle?

What is Ardahan Castle?

Ardahan Castle is the large Ottoman fortress on the Kura River in the middle of Ardahan town. Its walls, more than 750 m long, enclose an area of over 32,000 m² and are strengthened by fourteen towers. It is the main historic monument of the town and a popular place for a walk or a picnic in summer.

The castle stands on an ancient site. Excavations around it found remains from the Early Bronze Age onwards, showing that people have lived on this crossing of the Kura for some five thousand years.

How do you get to Ardahan Castle?

The castle is in Ardahan town, on the river between the Halil Efendi quarter to the north and the town centre. It is an easy walk from the centre. Ardahan is about 90 km north of Kars, where the nearest airport is, and about 115 km east of Artvin; buses and minibuses run from both.

The army no longer uses the grounds and the site is open to visitors. There is no formal ticket office; climbing on the walls is forbidden.

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When is the best time to visit Ardahan Castle?

June to September, when the grass inside the walls is green and the days are mild. In winter the castle is often under snow and the town is very cold. Combine a visit with Lake Çıldır and Şeytan Castle, about an hour away near Çıldır.

What is the history of Ardahan Castle?

The inventory explains that prehistoric research around the castle revealed a settlement of the Early Bronze Age (3500–2000 BC), and that finds from different civilisations in excavations at the castle show the area was ruled by various kingdoms over the centuries.

In the Middle Ages Ardahan belonged to Armenian and Georgian rulers. The Byzantine army sacked the town in 1021, the Mongols took it in the 1230s and the Georgian princes of Samtskhe recovered it in 1266. After the Peace of Amasya of 1555 it passed to the Ottomans, and the present fortress was built by order of Süleyman the Magnificent. The date over the gate is read as 1544 in the 2002 inventory and as 1556 elsewhere; either way, it belongs to the middle of the 16th century. The traveller Evliya Çelebi described the castle in the 1640s. A small inscription in Georgian script built into the north wall suggests that stones from an earlier building, possibly a church, were reused.

During the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 the Ottomans, with German engineers, built new fortifications north and east of the old castle. Russia took Ardahan in 1878 and held it until 1918. Turkish forces recaptured it in 1920, and the Treaty of Kars of 1921 confirmed it as part of Türkiye. The castle was restored in 2000.

What is Ardahan Castle famous for?

• Its size: one of the largest Ottoman fortresses in northeastern Anatolia.
• Its towers: fourteen in all, polygonal on the north wall and square elsewhere.
• Its riverside setting on the Kura, the river that flows on to the Caspian Sea.

What can you see at Ardahan Castle?

The walls and towers. The castle follows a rectangular, slightly trapezoidal plan. The walls are built of medium and small stones, with larger cut stones at the corners, and are supported along their whole length by square and polygonal towers. The ground slopes about 36 m from north to south, so the south wall stands almost half as tall again as the north wall.

The gate. The single entrance is on the west side; several other gates are now blocked. The inscription with the date of construction is just above the arch of the entrance.

The interior. Inside the walls is open ground with paths and shaded picnic tables rather than standing buildings.

The river. The Kura runs along the foot of the castle. It rises in the mountains of northeastern Türkiye and flows on through Georgia and Azerbaijan to the Caspian Sea; the inventory notes that all the rivers rising in Ardahan drain to the Caspian.

The town around it. The Derviş Bey Mosque, built in 1869 according to the panels at its entrance, is in the town. Its founder, Derviş Bey, is otherwise unknown.

Frequently asked questions about Ardahan Castle

What do the official records say about Ardahan Castle?

Ardahan Castle was built in the mid-16th century (1544) by order of Süleyman the Magnificent during the Ottoman period and has survived to the present day. The remains of different civilisations recovered in excavations at Ardahan Castle, whose history goes back a very long way, show the existence of a settlement in the area from the Early Bronze Age and that the region came under the rule of various kingdoms.

It stands on the left bank of the Kura River, which separates the Halil Efendi quarter in the north of the town from the town centre. Architecturally the castle is based on a rectangular plan. Just above the arch of the entrance, the date of construction is written as 1544 AD. The walls forming the rectangular plan are supported from end to end by many towers with square bases and polygonal plans. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ardahan Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)