Trabzon Kalesi

Trabzon Castle is the common name for the defensive system that encircles the city's old core and runs from the shore up to the hills behind it. English sources describe it not as a single castle but as a set of city walls wrapped around the old town. The walls stand on a high, table-like rock mass rising between the Tabakhane and Zağnos streams. The Trabzon Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism notes that the earliest known traces of settlement in the city were found on exactly this plateau. The name of the city is also linked to this plateau. The most widely held view is that it comes from trapezos, an ancient Greek word for table or trapezoid. Kültür Portalı writes that the rough trapezoid traced by the walls explains the name. The name Trapezos first appears in Xenophon's Anabasis, and Kültür Portalı reports that the same author mentions the existence of walls. The fortifications fall into three main parts, each with its own period. The Upper Town served as the citadel and acropolis of the city, and its walls were built higher and thicker than the rest. Its southern side was strengthened with a thick double wall and towers. English Wikipedia states that the palace of the Empire of Trebizond stood in this upper section. The same source records that an aqueduct was built in the Roman period to bring fresh water to the upper town. The Middle Town is the irregularly shaped section that links the upper and lower parts. Sources attribute it to Emperor Alexios II of Trebizond. The Imaret and Zağanos gates open on its western face, while the Tabakhane and Kule gates stand on its other sides. The Lower Town starts beside the Zağnos Tower and descends all the way to the sea. The Pazar and Mumhane gates open on the eastern side of this section. An inscription bearing the tughra of Sultan Mehmed II is recorded above the gate of the Moloz Bastion in the Lower Town. Sources give different dates for the age of the walls. Kültür Portalı links the oldest parts to a very early period, while English Wikipedia writes that the oldest standing section can be dated to the 1st century AD. The provincial culture directorate notes that the Byzantine emperor Justinian had the city walls restored in the 6th century. The safest description is therefore a defensive system that grew layer by layer over the centuries on Roman foundations. Turkish Wikipedia also notes that the walls were built with stones gathered from older monuments and that human reliefs have been found within them. When Evliya Çelebi toured these walls, he compared the deep ditch on the mountain side to a well carved out of solid rock. Today two valley parks take the place of those ditches. The western Zağnos Valley has been landscaped to open up the view of the walls, and a similar transformation continues in the eastern Tabakhane Valley. Archaeological excavations led by the Trabzon Museum Directorate are under way in the citadel area. The best way to explore the walls is to walk through the valleys and look up at them from below. From the paths in Zağnos Valley Park the western walls and towers can be seen at their full height. Once you climb into the streets of Ortahisar, you notice that the walls in places turn into the back facades of houses. The different textures in the masonry are a good clue for reading the repairs of different periods. Stones get slippery on rainy days, so shoes with a good grip are a sensible choice. For photographs, afternoon light shows the towers on the western face to better effect. Because the walls stand right in the city centre, they are easy to reach. From the area around the main square you can walk to Zağnos Bridge and on to Ortahisar within a few minutes. Excavation areas and sections under restoration may be closed to visitors from time to time. Current access information should be checked with the Trabzon Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism. Zağnos Valley, the Kanuni House and Tabakhane Bridge follow along the same walking line.