Ottoman Perıod

After the conquest of Istanbul by the Ottoman Empire, reconstruction works were started in the capital. In particular, people brought from all over the empire were settled on the coastline stretching from the shores of the Golden Horn to Topkapı and Yedikule. In the same period, that is, after the conquest of Istanbul, in 1458, a three-towered wall was added to these four bastions by using the two pylons of the Golden Gate, which was the triumphal arch used by the Byzantine Emperors to enter the city, and the two fortification towers in the same row, so; Yedikule Fortress, which is an inner castle, was built by Fatih Sultan Mehmet.

The towers are connected to each other by 5 meters thick fortification walls, triangular or half-round bastions. The upper parts of the great towers were covered with high pyramidal, two-stage cones. Of these three great towers, the cylindrical ones are the Millet or Treasury Tower in the northeast and the Cannon Tower in the southeast. The prism-shaped tower is the Dungeon Tower (also known as the Inscriptions Tower). The Byzantine bastion known as the “Pastorama Tower”, which was originally four corners in the north of the towers next to the pylons of the Golden Gate, was rebuilt in 1724-1725 as an octagon. The tower, whose construction was started during the reign of Ahmed III (1703-1730), was completed during the reign of Osman III (1754-1757). This tower is generally known as the “Sultan Ahmed III Tower.” The Byzantine bastion in the south was destroyed in a massive earthquake in 1766. This bastion, which was never built again, is known as the “Little Tower”.

The tower above the entrance gate is called the “Flag Tower”. There are guard rooms to the right and left of the gate. The purpose of this castle, which is protected by artillery, is to keep valuable documents and belongings belonging to the state and to use it as a dungeon where political criminals are imprisoned, rather than defending the city. In Yedikule Fortress as a dungeon; foreign political criminals, ambassadors of the countries that the Ottoman Empire fought in Istanbul, and Ottoman statesmen were imprisoned. This tower, known as the Inscriptions Tower or the Dungeon Tower, used to house foreign prisoners. These prisoners were able to move freely within the fort as well as stay in the houses in the neighborhood here. It is learned from some sources that they are allowed to travel around the city from time to time. The traveler G.- J. Grelot, who was in Istanbul in the middle of the 18th century, says that Christians from the prisoners here could bring priests for worship from outside, and a ritual was held in a small temple. This small chapel is also mentioned by Poucqueville, who was arrested and brought to the Fortress while he was the French consul in Ioannina at the beginning of the 19th century. The consul also describes how prisoners are treated as hostages, not prisoners of war. Yedikule Fortress lost its function as a prison during the reign of Mahmut II (1808-1839).

The Treasure Tower was protected by 250 soldiers, according to Dominico, the physician of Murad III.
Fatih Mosque was built by Fatih in the courtyard of the fortress, an Ottoman primary school was built by Chief Harem Eunuch Hacı Beşir Agha in the first half of the 18th century, and a fountain was built next to the mosque.

Lubenas made the following statements about the Fortress in his Travel Book: “At the head of the castle is a highly respected commander called “castle warden”. At his command, there were 500 janissaries. The property and valuables belonging to the Turkish rulers were kept here. In one of the towers in Yedikule Fortress, there was gold bullion and money, in the other old and valuable goods, official documents, and in another, the booty brought by Yavuz Sultan Selim from Iran. Between 1458 and 1789, the state treasury, called the Imperial Treasury (Hazine-i Hümayun), was located here and was moved to the palace during the reign of Murad III.

When it comes to the towers of the Fortress, which were used as a dungeon during the Ottoman Period, it can also be understood from the comment of British Traveler Lithgow, “The atmosphere is beneficial to health and perfect to dispel melancholy”, that the Yedikule Dungeons are not as brutal as it is thought, and that prison sentences that are not very cruel apart from the executions and tortures applied there.

The Muslim prisoners who were confined to the fortress were held in pylons on both sides of the Golden Gate. Similar to the Tower of the Inscriptions, this tower also contains many inscriptions and ordinary graffiti. The well located in the middle of the pylon in the south and called “Bloody Well” is a place that has witnessed many events. It is known that Çandarlı Halil Pasha and his sons were imprisoned in these towers for the first time 9 days after the conquest.

After the construction of the fortress, David Komnenos, the last emperor of the Trabzon Greek Empire, which joined the Ottoman lands in 1461, and his sons were executed in the Yedikule Fortress in 1463. The famous Grand Vizier of the Sultan Fatih Period, Mahmut Pasha, is mentioned in the sources where the last Abbasid Caliph Mutevekkil III from whom Yavuz Sultan Selim took over the caliphate, and the ex-Yemen sheikh in 1587, were also imprisoned here.

The Austrian Embassy official Rainhard Lubenaeau mentions the Maltese knights imprisoned in the Fortress in 1584. Historian Peçevi, on the other hand, cites that the Crimean Khan Mehmed Giray stayed here in 1618. One of the most famous prisoners in Fortress was Osman II, who was Sultan Osman II, nicknamed Young Osman. When Osman II was dethroned and Mustafa II came to power, Grand Vizier Davud Pasha and Janissary Agha Derviş Agha went to the Orta Mosque in which Osman II was held after his enthronement ceremony in Topkapı Palace. Grand Vizier Davud Pasha and Janissary Agha Derviş Agha and their companies put Osman II in a shopping carriage and took him to Yedikule. At midnight, Davud Pasha took his chamberlain, head armorer and several rebel leaders and went to Yedikule and Osman II, who was attempted to be strangled with a lasso, tried to resist but was killed inside the fortress.

Also in the building, notable figures such as Stephanus Alberti (1607), one of the Venetian nobles; Julius Andrea Virasina (1600), commander of the Corinthian camp; Grand Vizier Kara Davud Pasha (1622); French Consul Jean de la Haye (1660); Sermimar-ı Hassa Kasım Agha (1651); Deli Huseyin Pasha, the Conqueror of Crete (1660); Istanbul Armenian Patriarch Avedik (1703); Constamin Brancoveanu, Prince of Wallachia (1714); Russian Ambassador Count Tolstyu and Russian Ambassador Alexi Oberskov (1787); and French Ambassador Ruffin served their times. Yedikule Fortress was no longer used as a prison during the reign of Mahmut II (1808-1839).

In the 18th century, the interest in collecting ancient artifacts and mummies arose in Europe. Since the place where such works are mostly found is in the Ottoman lands, European ambassadors and travelers who came to Istanbul started to collect these artifacts. Lady Montagu, in her work titled “Turkish Embassy Letters”, mentioned the attempt to take a mummy, which took place in this century as well. It was reported that in 1717, when Ahmed III was in power, a mummy was ordered by the King of France to be sent as a gift to the King of Sweden. The people responsible for transmitting this order were caught on patrol in Istanbul and the Istanbul district governor launched an investigation. Actually, the mummy, which did not attract the attention of the Ottomans, was detained as a result of the rumors spread in Istanbul. According to the legend, this mummy is enchanted and the continuation of the Ottoman Empire depends on the preservation of the mummy in these lands. The attempts of the French and Swedish embassies were inconclusive and as a result, the sarcophagus in which the mummy was found was sealed and taken to the Yedikule Dungeon.
Yedikule Fortress, which has been the subject of legends such as the mummy and the curse of the captive pagan in the Ottoman Period, still preserves this legendary feature over the centuries.
In 1831, lions of the Topkapı Palace were brought to Yedikule Fortress, and it was used as a zoo during the reign of Sultan Abdülmecid (1851).

In Yedikule Fortress, which has an important place in the city in terms of meeting social needs, the Girls’ Art House operated between 1871 and 1875.