Yedikule, Istanbul

Yedikule, the Castle of the Seven Towers, is a curious part-Byzantine, part-Turkish structure in the land walls near the Sea of Marmara: four towers belong to the Theodosian walls and three were added inside by Fatih soon after the Conquest, joined by four heavy curtain-walls into a five-sided enclosure ¹. The two central Theodosian towers are marble pylons flanking the Golden Gate, the Roman triumphal arch erected about 390 by Theodosius I ¹.

Yedikule was never used as a castle in the usual sense: two towers served as Ottoman prisons while others stored part of the state treasure ². The tower by the entrance is called the Tower of Ambassadors because foreign envoys were often imprisoned there; some carved their names and tales of woe in half a dozen languages ². The pylon left of the Golden Gate was a prison and place of execution — here Sultan Osman II was put to death on 22 May 1622 aged seventeen; the book quotes Evliya Çelebi's grim account ³. The fortress has been restored and is open as a museum and performance venue ².

• Source read: Freely, A History of Ottoman Architecture (2011), pp. 121–123 (Yedikule).
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