Castle of Şebinkarahisar: A Multi-Period Fortress in Türkiye
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Turkey
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Byzantine, Ottoman, Seljuk
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page12 sections
History
The Castle of Şebinkarahisar is a multi-period fortress in Şebinkarahisar, Türkiye, occupying Hacıkayası hill south of the town. Its foundation date and builders are unknown, but it is considered to have existed under the Kingdom of Pontus, a Hellenistic state centered on the southern Black Sea region, before Roman rule.
Persian, Pontic, and Roman Rule
Hacıkayası and the castle successively came under Persian rule from 550 to 331 BC, Pontic rule from 293 to 65 BC, and Roman rule from 65 BC to AD 226. The first recorded repair was undertaken by the Roman commander Pompey. These successive political changes placed the fortress within the wider struggles for control of northern Anatolia and the southern Black Sea region.
Sasanian and Byzantine Periods
From AD 226 to 591, the castle remained under the Sasanian Empire, the major Iranian power that contested Byzantine control of Anatolia. It passed to the Byzantine Empire, the eastern Roman Empire, in AD 591. Extensive repairs to sections of the northern and southeastern walls are attributed to the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I.
Muslim Arab raids began in AD 645. In AD 778, the Umayyad commander Yazid ibn Usayd al-Sulami captured the castle, after which Muslim control continued during the Abbasid period.
Turkish Principalities and the Seljuk Period
In AD 1074, the Danishmendids and Mengujekids jointly conquered the castle. These were Turkish principalities established in Anatolia after the eleventh-century Turkish conquests. During the Mengujekid period, the ruler Fahreddin Behram Shah ordered his son Muzafferiddin Mehmed to repair the ruined walls and build a mosque and palace. Behram Shah is also said to have ordered the major additions made in 1184.
Muzafferiddin Mehmed brought the fortress substantially into its present form by constructing the inner castle and its octagonal palace tower. The site later became associated with the Anatolian Seljuk state, the major Seljuk polity that ruled much of Anatolia, and subsequently with the Ilkhanids, the Eretna state, the state of Kadi Burhaneddin, the Kara Koyunlu, and the Ak Koyunlu.
Ottoman Rule and Later Damage
After the Battle of Otlukbeli in 1473, fought between Sultan Mehmed II and the Ak Koyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan, the castle came under Ottoman rule. It underwent repeated repairs during the Ottoman period.
The fortress was destroyed or severely damaged during the suppression of the rebellions of Şehzade Murad in 1515, Abaza Mehmed Pasha in 1622, and the Armenian Şebinkarahisar uprising in 1915. The 1915 uprising, the 1939 Erzincan earthquake, and other natural events caused further damage to the remains. The castle was last repaired in 2003. Its surviving walls and entrance are attributed to the Seljuk and Ottoman periods.
The Ottoman traveler and writer Evliya Çelebi, who lived from 1611 to 1682, described the castle in 1647. A Mengujekid-period inscription with a double-headed-eagle relief once stood above the gate. It was removed in 1896, stolen, later recovered, and sent to the governor of Sivas Province.
Remains
The castle occupies the summit of the approximately 1,360-metre-high Hacıkayası hill and consists of two connected sections, the outer castle and the inner castle. Rock-cut stairs, gates, towers, cisterns, wall fragments, and other structural remains survive across the site. Rock-cut graves to the east of the castle may date from the pre-Turkic period.
Outer Castle
Entrances and Defensive Works
The outer-castle entrance is reached by rock-cut stairs that remain extant. Its gate stands between two semicircular towers and is also described as a pointed-arched Seljuk Gate. A second entrance approximately 10 to 15 metres northeast of it is attributed to the Byzantine period; it was later walled up and closed.
An oval-plan bastion stands at the northwestern end of the outer castle. Known as Kızlar Kalesi, meaning “Girls Castle,” it forms part of the fortress’s outer defenses. The towers on the southern and eastern sides are highly ruined, while additional wall and structural remains extend through the outer section.
Cisterns and Recorded Buildings
The outer castle contains rock-cut cisterns of various sizes. Its largest water installation is Kırk Badal, whose name means “Forty Steps,” a large cistern cut into the rock. The inner and outer sections together contain numerous large and small cisterns.
Evliya Çelebi described wheat warehouses, the Küçük Fatih Mosque, and seventy houses within the castle. Most of these structures apparently remained standing until the 1915 uprising. He also described the fortress as having seven sides, walls approximately 75 to 90 centimetres thick, seventy bastions, one hundred wall or defensive sections, and a perimeter of 3,600 paces. His account included three successive iron gates and a mosque identified as the Fatih Mosque.
Inner Castle
Courtyard and Palace Tower
The inner castle stands on rocky ground approximately 15 to 20 metres inside the outer courtyard. A gate supported by towers leads into an irregular rectangular courtyard. On the highest part of the rock stands the principal palace tower, an octagonal structure four storeys high at the northwestern corner of the inner castle.
The tower rises approximately 27 metres. Its entrance has a low-arched doorway measuring between 1.54 and 1.90 metres, and a staircase of 42 steps leads to the upper battlements and loophole defenses. Each face except the entrance facade has seven windows. Masonry marks dating to the thirteenth century occur at the inner-castle gate and on the walls of the palace-tower structure.
Inner-Castle Cisterns and Walls
Approximately 2.70 metres south of the large octagonal tower is a rock-cut cistern measuring 6.20 by 4.20 metres and 8 metres deep. Its upper portion is built of rubble stone and horasan mortar, a lime-based mortar containing a pozzolanic aggregate such as crushed brick or ceramic material.
The inner-castle walls are reinforced by four small semicircular towers in addition to the large octagonal tower. Together with the surviving entrance, walls, stairs, and water installations, these features preserve the division between the outer defenses and the elevated inner stronghold.
