Yoros Castle

Yoros Castle, located at the top of Anadolu Kavağı, the green face of Istanbul and the point opening to the Black Sea, is the only Byzantine castle in Istanbul. Yoros Castle, commonly known as the Genoese Castle, was built in the 13th and 14th centuries. Although it is said that this name of Yoros Castle comes from Hieron (sacred place), it is also claimed that it was taken from Ourius (suitable winds), the epithet of Zeus.

The castle on the top of Anadolu Kavağı, where green and blue meet, fell under the rule of the Genoese for a while with the decline of Byzantium, and then by the Turks in 1391, just before the conquest of Istanbul. The castle, which was named Yoros after it was captured by the Turks, is located on two 500-meter-long hills on a land overlooking the Black Sea. The width of the castle varies between 60 and 130 meters. The bricks, which have found a widespread use in the castle, are in the form of square and rectangular, and the side lengths of the square bricks vary between 30-37 cm and their thicknesses vary between 3-4.5 cm. Rectangular bricks are half the size of square bricks. The most spectacular part of the castle is the double towers. The towers were built on 6-7 rows of brickwork and 3-4 rows of various cut stones. It is observed that the same system was applied in the original walls of the castle. The brickwork in the bastions has a height of about 60-70cm, and the stone mesh has a height of 95-110cm. The fact that this knitting system does not continue in some bastions indicates that they were built or repaired in different periods. The colors of the bricks used in the castle also vary. While reddish bricks are common, the presence of pinkish and occasionally buff-yellow bricks is also noteworthy.