Restoration in Aydos almost finished

ISTANBUL

The Aydos Castle in Sultanbeyli, known as the place where the conquest of Istanbul started, will be open to tourism in 2018, immediately after restoration in the castle ends.

Believed to have been built in the 11th and 12th centuries in the Eastern Roman era, Aydos Castle had a significant function thanks to its strategic location. The Ottoman Sultan Orhan Gazi ordered Abdurrahman Gazi, Akça Koca and Konur Alp to conquer the castle. Ottoman forces first conquered the Samandıra Castle and then captured the Aydos Castle.

According to Ottoman historian Aşık Paşazade, there is a love story behind the conquest of the castle.

“The daughter of the castle’s landlord once dreamed about a young man who rescued her after she fell into a pit. She fell in love with the man. And when she saw, in real life, the face of Abdurrahman Gazi as the leader of the Ottoman soldiers who sieged the castle, she remembered he was the man in her dreams. She threw a stone at a soldier with a note tied to it, saying she would give the castle to them. She asked Abdurrahman Gazi to come back at night to raid the castle and she would take them in. The Ottoman army then tricked those in the castle by making it look like they were withdrawing. The soldiers in the castle thought the Ottomans escaped. Abdurrahman Gazi returned at night, was taken in by the daughter of the landlord and the Ottoman soldiers then conquered the castle. The love between the daughter and the Ottoman soldier had a happy ending. They also had a child,” Paşazade said.

The Ottomans, who conquered the castle with all of its richness, became dominant in the region as of 1328. From then on, they were known as the conquerors of Aydos.

 But at the time of Orhan Gazi, the castle was left nonfunctional.

The Aydos Castle, which is defined by historian Professor Halil İnalcık as the place where the conquest of Istanbul started, began being restored four years ago by the Sultanbeyli Municipality. The restoration is set to be finished in 2018.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, Sultanbeyli Mayor Hüseyin Keskin said within the scope of the restoration, the castle walls were repaired and 90 percent of the excavations had been finished, adding that half of the architectural structures that were unearthed during the excavations were restored, too.

He said Sultanbeyli would develop after the opening of the castle.

“We will become a center for international culture tourism. Now, environmental works are being carried out around the castle. The artifacts unearthed from the castle have been registered and are being kept at the Istanbul Archaeology Museums. We also plan to open a small museum to display them,” he added.