GARDEN
Or the famous lettuce garden? Yeditepe lettuce is one of the important symbols of Yeditepe Fortress. It is obvious that Yeditepe lettuce gets its name from the orchard land where it is grown. Let's see what else this garden contains besides lettuce cultivation.
Yedikule Fortress garden is a flat land. In the garden, there was a mosque, fountain, water tank, well and an Ottoman primary school. The mosque was built by Sultan Fatih and opened to worship for guard soldiers. The fountain, water tank and well were built to meet the water needs of the people, and the primary school was built by the Chief Harem Eunuch Hacı Beşir Agha, in the first half of the 18th century.
In the area of the garden in front of the Golden Gate, there is the tomb of the Conqueror of Crete, Deli Hüseyin Pasha and his family. There are statements in some travel books that there are graves in the main courtyard. After the use of Yedikule Fortress as a dungeon was ended, the lions of Topkapi Palace were transferred here in 1831. This incident, which occurred as a result of the Topkapı Palace Arslanhane building being destroyed in a fire, caused palace lions to roam in the garden of Yedikule Fortress and paved the way for the establishment of a zoo in time. Finally, in 1851, during the reign of Sultan Abdülmecit, the fortress garden was used as a zoo.
In the photographs of Yedikule Fortress at the beginning of the 20th century, the buildings and house images we mentioned can be found. This shows us that there is evidence that a neighborhood existed in the Fortress. Although it is not known when this neighborhood disappeared, it is possible to suppose that it was destroyed in the Istanbul fire that lasted for three days in 1782.
In 1883, the courtyard of the fortress was given to Mersul Baba, one of the Bektaş-i dervishes, to make a garden, and a few years later, to the gardener Cemil Bey, with a rent of 200 kuruş (Ottoman currency unit), and an attempt was made to convert the fortress from the creepy dungeon label.
To talk about our green plant, which is famous for its name, Yedikule lettuce, it would be helpful to take a look at its historical past. The famous historian Herodotus, in his writings, described the presentation of lettuce at the table of Persian kings in the 6th century BC, and many Greek writers praised the virtues of lettuce in their writings in the 4th and 5th centuries BC. Lettuce also existed among the tomb decoration paintings of the late Egyptian civilization. It is estimated that its origin is in the Eastern Mediterranean and, like many other products, it was taken to the places they invaded by the Romans, who had quite a good taste in foods, allowing it to spread throughout Europe.
Lettuce orchards in Yedikule are mentioned as empty lands within the walls in the foundation charter of Hızır Kethüda Bin Abdullah in the Foundations Cadastral Record Book dated 1546. Yedikule Gardens, which is an important urban agricultural area with its historical heritage, is the only example with the characteristics of the Eastern Roman and Ottoman Empire with its wooden garden house, barn, well, water basin and water channels.
