Turkey · 16th century
Bodrum Castle (Turkish: Bodrum Kalesi) is a historical fortification located in southwest Turkey in the port city of Bodrum, built from 1402 onwards, by the Knights of St John (Knights Hospitaller) as the Castle of St. Peter or Petronium. A transnational effort, it has four towers known as the English, French, German, and Italian towers, bearing the names of the nations responsible for their construction. The chapel was built around 1407 and the first walls completed in 1437. The castle started reconstruction in the late 15th century, only to be taken over by the Islamic Ottoman Empire in 1523. The chapel was converted to a mosque, and a minaret was added.
The castle remained under the empire for almost 400 years. After remaining empty following World War I, in the early 1960s, the castle became the home for the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology. In 2016 it was inscribed in the UNESCO Tentative list of World Heritage Sites in Turkey.
Text adapted from “Bodrum Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Bodrum Castle ranks #233 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #5 of the 129 mapped in Turkey. Founded 1522, it is older than 42% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 891 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 22,000 times in the last 60 days, more than 98% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Turkey compares in the castle statistics.
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