Ukraine · 13th century
Kamara-Isar ranks #8,639 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #162 of the 195 mapped in Ukraine. Founded c. 1250, it is older than 67% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 1091 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. 19 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Sevastopol, 15 km away. See how Ukraine compares in the castle statistics.
Kamara-Isar is a medieval castle of the 13th–15th century in the south-western part of Crimea. It is situated 1 km south of the village of Oboronnoye in the Balaklava district, on the summit of a rocky elevation called Ayu-Kaya or Khaos. The fortress is also known under the names Kamara Isar and the Kamara fortification.
An area measuring 63×20 m is enclosed on three sides (west, south and east) by fortress walls 1.2–1.5 m thick, which were built of slightly dressed local marble-like limestone on lime mortar. The wall has almost everywhere been dismantled to its foundations, but in places it survives to a height of up to 2.5 m. The castle had two towers, square in plan. On the south-western flank of the defences stands a square donjon tower measuring 7.5×7.5 m, and on the eastern flank a flanking projection. Traces of buildings are visible within the castle. Near one of the towers the round mouth of a well or cistern can be discerned. Within the fortification are numerous fragments of roof tiles and vessels of the 13th–15th century.
The entrance to the fortress was probably in the eastern wall. At the very highest point are visible the ruins of a small garrison church measuring 3×6 m, the walls of which are built of rubble on lime mortar. Archaeological investigations of this church were carried out in 2011.
In 1278 the castle was destroyed by the Mongols. In the 15th century three settlements, part of the Mangup kadılık, were probably under its control: Cembalo (Balaklava), Kadıköy and Kamary. After the Genoese seized Cembalo, the settlement of Kadıköy also passed to them. The boundaries of this domain were apparently: to the west the Karan heights, to the north the southern slopes of the Fedyukhin heights in the valley of the Chorna River, and to the south-east and east the Sukhaya river, which flows into the Chorna near the village of Chernorechye.
Machine-translated from “Камара Исар” on the Russian Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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