St. Peter's Castle

St. Peter's Castle or Bodrum Castle ( tour: Bodrum Kalesi ) is a medieval fortress in the Turkish city ​​of Bodrum , on the territory of ancient Halicarnassus .

Castle
St. Peter's Castle
tour. Bodrum kalesi
A country	Turkey
Location	Bodrum

The fortress was erected in the 15th century by knights hospitalians from Rhodes . Earlier here was one of the Seven Wonders of the World - the mausoleum of the Karyan ruler Mausoleum ( Greek Μαύσωλος ). He suffered several earthquakes and was destroyed in 1402. Subsequently, the crusaders used part of the wreckage of the mausoleum as a building material in the construction of the castle walls.

The construction of the fortifications was led by the architect Heinrich Schlegelolt. In 1406 a castle chapel was built, and only by 1437 the walls of the castle were ready. Later, the Spanish knights rebuilt it to their liking - in the Gothic style .

For several decades, the castle was periodically besieged by the troops of the Ottoman Empire, but was not taken. In 1482, the son of Sultan Mehmed II and the brother of Sultan Bayazid II were hiding here after a failed assassination attempt on the throne.

In 1494, additional fortifications from the mainland were needed so that the defenders of the castle could withstand the attacks of the Turks. For this, the knights again used stones from the tomb of Mavsol. The Grand Master of the Order of the Johannites ordered the construction of a round bastion . By 1507, from the ruins of the mausoleum, the knights carried away the last sculptures that decorated the castle walls.

By 1522, one of the Wonders of the World was finally dismantled and destroyed, and in December of that year the castle nevertheless capitulated to Sultan Suleiman . All fortifications and castles of the Order passed to the Turks, and the chapel was rebuilt as a mosque.

In 1962, the Museum of Underwater Archeology was created in the premises of the former castle, in which the Uluburun treasure is exhibited.