Citadel of Damascus: A Medieval Fortified Palace and Fortress in Syria
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Syria
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Ayyubid, Mamluk, Seljuk
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Citadel
On this page20 sections
History
The Citadel of Damascus is a medieval fortified palace and citadel in Damascus, Syria, built by successive Muslim ruling powers from the late eleventh century onward. It occupies the northwestern corner of the old city walls and forms part of the Ancient City of Damascus, which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979. The citadel began under the Turkmen warlord Atsiz ibn Uwaq in 1076 and was completed under the Seljuq ruler Tutush I.
Before the Citadel
The history of the site before the eleventh century remains uncertain. The wider Ghouta region had been inhabited since at least 9000 BC, but the area later occupied by the citadel was probably outside the earliest settlement enclosed by Damascus’s walls. A Hellenistic citadel has not been demonstrated. Roman Damascus certainly possessed fortifications, although whether they stood on the site of the present citadel remains debated.
Seljuq Foundation and Burid Defences
In 1076, Atsiz ibn Uwaq conquered Damascus, established himself as its ruler, and began building the citadel. The Fatimids defeated him in 1077 and unsuccessfully besieged Damascus that year and again in 1078. Tutush I lifted the second siege, took control of the city, and had Atsiz assassinated in 1078. Construction continued under Tutush and was completed during his rule.
After Tutush died in 1095, his son Abu Nasr Shams al-Muluk Duqaq ruled Damascus, while his other son, Fakhr al-Mulk Radwan, governed Aleppo. Duqaq ordered further work on the citadel between 1095 and 1104. Radwan attempted to take it in 1096 but failed.
During the Burid period, from 1104 to 1154, the citadel was repeatedly improved because Damascus faced attacks from both Crusader and Muslim armies. Crusader forces approached the city in 1126 and 1129, reaching approximately 30 kilometres and 10 kilometres from Damascus. Burid rulers strengthened the defences during the 1130s. The Zengid ruler Zengi attacked Damascus in 1135 and 1140, and Crusaders returned in 1148 during the Second Crusade, a campaign in which western European armies attempted to seize territory in the eastern Mediterranean.
Zengid and Ayyubid Rule
The 1148 Crusader siege ended within a week when an army led by Nur ad-Din Zangi, ruler of Aleppo and son of Zengi, threatened the besiegers. After further unsuccessful attacks in 1150 and 1151, Nur ad-Din captured Damascus in 1154. The citadel was surrendered after its last Burid ruler, Mujir al-Din Abaq, received safe passage and authority over Homs.
Nur ad-Din ruled Damascus as a Zengid emir from 1154 until his death in 1174 and lived in the citadel. He rebuilt or refurbished its residential buildings and, after the earthquake of 1170, constructed a wooden house for sleeping and prayer beside the original stone residence. He also built a mosque and a fountain. Between 1165 and 1174, he probably strengthened the citadel as part of a wider programme of fortification. Nur ad-Din died of illness there on 15 May 1174. He was first buried in the citadel, but his body was later transferred to the Nur ad-Din Madrasah in Damascus.
Later in 1174, Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty and sultan of Egypt, seized Damascus with approximately 700 horsemen. The city opened its gates, but the citadel surrendered only later that year. Saladin added a tower and refurbished the residential buildings. He died of illness in the citadel on 4 March 1193 and was initially buried there before being reburied in a mausoleum near the Umayyad Mosque.
After Saladin’s death, rival Ayyubid factions contested Egypt, Aleppo, Damascus, and Iraq. In 1196, Al-Aziz Uthman and Saladin’s brother, Al-Adil, captured Damascus, while Saladin’s eldest son, Al-Afdal, took refuge in the citadel. Negotiations led Al-Afdal to surrender the fortress, give up his titles, and accept exile at Salkhad in the Hauran. After Al-Aziz died in 1198, Al-Afdal allied with Az-Zahir Ghazi, ruler of Aleppo, and besieged Damascus in 1200 and 1201. The attacks failed, and a peace settlement recognized Al-Adil as sultan of Egypt and emir of Damascus.
Al-Adil’s Rebuilding
Al-Adil began a complete rebuilding of the citadel between 1203 and 1216. The older defences were demolished, and a larger fortress was erected on the same site, incorporating portions of the Seljuq structure. Ayyubid princes were required to finance and build major towers, while later rulers rebuilt administrative and domestic buildings. As-Salih Ayyub was the only successor specifically identified with later changes to the defences.
The reconstruction responded to the obsolescence of the earlier fortifications, possible earthquake damage in 1200 and 1201, and continuing threats from rival Ayyubid princes. The new system had higher, thicker walls, a broad surrounding moat, and large square towers set close together. Their elevated platforms were designed for counterweight trebuchets, powerful medieval siege engines that used suspended weights to throw heavy projectiles. The new arrangement reflected the ability of these weapons to damage thick stone walls.
After Al-Adil died in 1218, Ayyubid princes fought for control of Damascus. Between 1229 and 1246, the city changed rulers frequently and was attacked five times by Ayyubid armies. The citadel was captured by force only once in this period, in 1239, when attackers mined one of its walls. The weakened garrison was too small to defend the fortress effectively.
Mongol Conquest and Mamluk Reconstruction
After the last Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, Al-Muazzam Turanshah, was murdered in 1250, Damascus was seized by An-Nasir Yusuf, the Ayyubid ruler of Aleppo. He controlled much of Syria until the Mongol invasion. In 1260, after conquering Aleppo, the Mongols threatened Damascus. An-Nasir Yusuf fled, and negotiations with Hulagu Khan led to the city being handed to the Mongol general Kitbuqa.
When the Mongol army left to suppress revolts in the countryside, the Ayyubid garrison revolted inside the citadel. Mongol forces besieged it and subjected it to heavy bombardment before the garrison surrendered. Much of the defensive system was then dismantled.
The Mamluk sultan Qutuz defeated the Mongols at Ain Jalut in 1260, bringing Damascus under Mamluk influence. Qutuz was assassinated that year by his commander Baibars, who became sultan of Egypt. Under Baibars, the citadel was rebuilt and its northern wall was moved 10 metres north. Later Mamluk sultans, including Qalawun and Al-Ashraf Khalil, continued the work. Al-Ashraf Khalil added the Blue Dome.
In 1300, following the Mamluk defeat at Wadi al-Khazandar, Mongol forces captured Damascus but failed to take the citadel. They besieged it and placed a trebuchet in the courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque before withdrawing. Later Mamluk repairs addressed damage, especially along the eastern side. The mosque was rebuilt and enlarged, the towers were repaired, and tiles destroyed on the Blue Dome were replaced with lead plates.
Late Mamluk Sieges
During the Mamluk civil war of the late fourteenth century, forces supporting Sultan Barquq and the armies of Saif al-Din Yalbugha and Mintash repeatedly besieged Damascus and its citadel. The fighting involved siege towers, trebuchets, rockets, and cannons. Mintash was killed in 1393, and a conspiracy known as the Zahiri Revolt was uncovered inside the citadel.
Timur, the Central Asian ruler also known as Tamerlane, reached Damascus in 1400 after conquering Aleppo, Hama, and Baalbek. In 1401, Damascus surrendered to him while the citadel continued to resist. Timur’s forces used siege towers and trebuchets, and the garrison surrendered after mining brought down the northwestern tower. The defenders were killed and a heavy tribute was imposed. When the tribute could not be delivered, Damascus was sacked and the Umayyad Mosque was burned.
Repairs to the citadel’s northern and western walls were carried out in 1407. In 1414, Damascus’s governor, Nawruz al-Hafizi, took refuge in the citadel during a conflict with Sultan Al-Mu’ayyad Shaykh. The fortress was bombarded with trebuchets and cannons, and the siege ended with a treaty of surrender. In 1461, the southwest tower collapsed in a fire caused by projectiles fired from it during a revolt by the governor of Damascus. That tower and four others were rebuilt in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, indicating that the earlier repairs had not fully restored the defences.
Ottoman Rule and Later Military Use
After Sultan Selim I defeated the Mamluks at the Battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516, Damascus and the citadel surrendered peacefully to the Ottomans. Selim appointed Janbirdi al-Ghazali, a Mamluk who had submitted to him, to govern Damascus. After Selim’s death in 1520, al-Ghazali rebelled and seized the citadel, but he was defeated and killed near Damascus in 1521.
From 1658 onward, Ottoman Janissaries controlled the citadel. They became involved in conflicts with the governors of Damascus in 1738 and 1746, temporarily losing control in 1746. The northern gate collapsed in 1752. A severe earthquake in 1759 brought down the western and southern walls, and the damage was repaired in 1761.
Ali Bey of Egypt, an opponent of Ottoman authority, invaded Syria in 1771. Damascus surrendered without a fight, but the citadel resisted and was briefly besieged before Ali Bey withdrew. Further sieges followed in 1787 and 1812 after the garrison revolted against the governor of Damascus, and the fortress resisted both attacks. The final recorded siege took place in 1831, when citizens of Damascus and local Janissaries rebelled against Governor Mehmed Selim Pasha. He took refuge in the citadel and endured a 40-day siege. Although promised safe passage, he was killed before leaving the city.
From Ottoman Decline to Restoration
In 1860, Christian refugees fleeing the Druze-Maronite conflict in Lebanon sought shelter in Damascus during the violence that followed. Many took refuge in the citadel and later left the city with assistance from Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri.
Nineteenth-century descriptions and photographs show that the outer defences remained in relatively good condition until about 1895, while buildings inside the walls had become complete ruins. In that year, substantial damage resulted from quarrying stone from the citadel for barracks. During the Ottoman withdrawal from Damascus in the final year of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in World War I, 4,000 prisoners were released from the citadel. Rioting and attacks on sick and disabled Ottoman soldiers ended after Australian Light Horse troops entered Damascus on 1 October 1918.
French forces occupied the citadel during the French Mandate in Syria from 1920 to 1946. During the Great Syrian Revolt in 1925, French troops used positions in and north of the citadel to shell Al-Hariqa, south of the fortress, causing widespread destruction.
After the Mandate, the citadel continued to serve as a prison and barracks until 1986. Restoration and archaeological investigation began that year with the aim of opening the site to the public, and Syrian restoration authorities continued the work until 1999. A joint French-Syrian mission then conducted archaeological and art-historical research and further restoration between 2000 and 2006 under the supervision of the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums and the Institut français du Proche-Orient. A restoration ceremony took place on 1 July 2006.
An agreement concluded in 2004 between the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums and the Italian General Directorate for Development Cooperation led to a Syrian-Italian mission. Beginning in 2007, it worked on renovation, reorganization, and planned structural reinforcement of damaged or weakened parts of the citadel. Archaeological research and restoration were suspended after the Syrian Civil War began in 2011. The citadel suffered additional damage during bombardments of Damascus in 2011 and 2012. A limited area was later restored, and concerts and exhibitions have been held within the fortress.
Remains
The citadel stands on flat ground at the same level as the surrounding city rather than on a hilltop. The Barada River flows north of it, providing control over the waterway and protection on that side. A branch of the Barada, the Nahr Aqrabani, flowed below the northern wall and helped supply the dry moats, while the Nahr Banyas passed beneath the citadel toward Damascus. Hydraulic structures, probably built under Al-Adil, controlled the movement of water into the city.
The fortress was integrated into Damascus’s walls, which abut its southwestern and northeastern corners. Shops along the northern side of Al-Hamidiyah Souq were built against the southern façade, and buildings conceal parts of the eastern defences. Structures adjoining the western and northern walls were demolished in the 1980s. The Seljuq citadel enclosed approximately 210 by 130 metres. Al-Adil’s rebuilding incorporated parts of those walls and added a second inner defensive ring, creating an irregular rectangular enclosure of approximately 230 by 150 metres.
Walls and Towers
Defensive Enclosure
The surviving defensive works are mainly Ayyubid, apart from parts of the western curtain wall, a defensive wall connecting towers. Extensive Mamluk restoration is also visible. The walls and towers were built from carbonate rock and basalt quarried around Damascus.
Twelve towers survive. One occupies each corner, three stand along both the northern and southern walls, and two face east. The original citadel had 14 towers, including two on the western wall that collapsed during the earthquake of 1759 and were not rebuilt. The central northern tower, which once contained the northern gate, has largely disappeared, leaving its western wall. The southwest corner tower has also largely disappeared, with parts of its basement surviving. The other ten towers rise approximately 15 to 25 metres.
The northern corner towers are square, the southern towers are L-shaped, and the remaining towers are rectangular, with their broad sides parallel to the citadel walls. Double parapets with machicolations, openings used to attack people below a wall or tower, crown the towers. Numerous arrowslits protected large platforms from which trebuchets could be operated.
Inner Galleries and Curtain Walls
The curtain walls are relatively short and connect the towers. Their lengths range from approximately 10 metres along the eastern wall to 43 metres between the northwestern corner tower and the next tower to the east. Where they retain their original height, the southern walls measure about 11.5 metres high and between 3.65 and 4.90 metres thick.
Vaulted galleries run along the inner faces of the walls and provide access to different parts of the citadel. Arrowslits in the galleries face approaching enemies. Above them, a protected walkway with crenellations follows the walls.
Gate Complexes
Northern Gate
The citadel has three gates on its northern, eastern, and western sides. The northern and eastern gates were constructed under Al-Adil, although the northern entrance was repaired during the Mamluk period. The northern gate, Bab al-Hadid or Iron Gate, was designed mainly for military use. Its original arrangement had arched entrances through the eastern and western sides of a tower in the northern curtain wall. These entrances led to a central vaulted room and then through a long vaulted passage into the courtyard, incorporating elements of the earlier Seljuq gate.
Inscriptions and architectural style place the original Ayyubid construction of the northern gate around 1210 to 1212. Most of the outer gate tower has disappeared. A street now passes through the surviving western arch, while the surviving vaulted passage leading into the citadel is used as a mosque.
Eastern Gate
A vaulted passage approximately 68 metres long connected the northern and eastern gate complexes and was probably built during Al-Adil’s reign. The eastern gate itself was constructed between 1213 and 1215. It is the only entrance opening toward the area enclosed by Damascus’s city walls. The gate occupies a square tower, is protected by a second tower to the south, and has a connecting barbican, an outer defensive structure protecting an entrance.
A bent-axis passage, which forces an entrant to change direction within the gateway, leads through vaulted corridors to the courtyard. Behind the courtyard is a square hall where four columns support an unusually shaped central dome. The gate incorporates part of the earlier Seljuq gate complex.
Unlike the northern gate, the eastern gate is more elaborately decorated and lacks features such as openings through which defenders could attack people passing below. During the Mamluk period, it was one of two places, together with the Umayyad Mosque, where official decrees were posted. Numerous inscriptions reflect this civic function. Its muqarnas canopy, a form of tiered three-dimensional architectural ornament, is now concealed because the outer door is blocked.
Western Gate
The present western gate is later than the other two. It originally stood between two square towers, probably built under Baibars. The towers were not rebuilt after the western defences collapsed in the earthquake of 1759. Unlike the northern and eastern entrances, the western gate has a straight passage.
Courtyard Buildings
Southwestern Building
A two-storey building occupies the southwestern corner of the courtyard, running parallel to the southern wall. It measures approximately 90 by 10 metres and reaches about 16 metres in height. Architectural and archaeological research indicates that it predates Al-Adil’s refortification and was probably added to the Seljuq citadel’s defences. Once incorporated into Al-Adil’s new walls, it lost its defensive function. Its later use remains unclear because surviving material in its original position did not permit its function to be reconstructed.
Residential and Religious Buildings
The citadel historically contained residences, palaces, houses, shops, the Mosque of Abu al-Darda, Dar Ridwan, a covered hall, Dar al-Masarra, storerooms, and a grain mill. Its occupants included sultans, kings, princes, governors, jurists, scholars, and ministers, reflecting the combination of military, residential, administrative, and religious functions within the fortified enclosure.
