Seddülbahir Castle was opened to visitors with a ceremony held on March 18, 2023.
Seddülbahir Fortress is situated at the southernmost tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula, at the entrance to the strait. Sedd-ül-Bahir, meaning the wall of the sea, is a 17th-century Ottoman fortress. Its construction started in 1658 under the auspices of IV. Mehmet’s mother, Hatice Turhan Sultan. Turhan Sultan is the first mother sultan to be a military building sponsor in Ottoman history. Seddülbahir protected the Aegean frontier of the Ottoman Empire until World War One (WWI), when it was bombarded by the Allied Forces and several of the towers, exterior walls and interior barracks of the fortress were reduced to ruins.
The fortress has been the subject of a comprehensive academic research project since 1997 and a documentation, restoration, and conservation project since 2004. Restoration works started in 2015. For the conservation and restoration, several different decisions have been made about how to document, conserve, restore and/or reconstruct different parts of the structure and site. The need to preserve evidence of past destruction was recognized as a crucial aspect of the interpretation of the site. The decision to conduct limited reconstruction in some parts of the fortress and to advocate for no reconstruction were also decisions informed by recent debates in critical heritage studies concerning authenticity and interpretive needs. More detailed information can be accessed from our academic publications presented on various national and international platforms and from the project and application content panels and videos to be placed in the castle in the coming days. I congratulate all my teammates who have worked hard in the 25 years.
The decisions on conservation and restoration are based on physical and scientific evidence but also a deep understanding of Seddülbahir’s “spirit of place”, in need to tell a rich variety of narratives about its past, from its establishment by an imperial Ottoman queen mother in the 17th century, to its destruction during WWI, to its role today as one of the most important historical monuments on the Gallipoli peninsula which is housing an exceptional museum.
All application details were discussed in more than 100 meetings with the participation of the Scientific Advisory Board, the supervision organization, and, if necessary, experts from different disciplines, and protection decisions were made and applications were carried out. The basic principle in restoration applications was to preserve the building sections as they are unless there was a structural necessity, a necessity for visitor safety, and situations that disrupted the architectural integrity. Since the start of the implementation in 2015, all steps and details have been presented as the subject of various publications and reports, and from time to time, experts and local people have been informed in the implementation field. Since 2019, the concept and implementation steps have taken shape, and the implementation has been completed by evolving into a refined integrity in the construction process involving competent teams in the field. In 2023, various installations have been added to the museum spaces with the participation of a curatorial group.
Re-use project is one of the most important steps of the project, which was selected as a result of an invited competition opened in 2017 with the aim of re-functioning the fortress. The main intention was the revitalization of the destroyed Bab-ı Kebir and the new museum building. In addition to these, the square in front of the fortress was designed, the primary school in the square was converted into a visitors center, new functions were given to historical spaces, and landscaping was designed.
In 2024, Seddülbahir Castle will be ready to be visited at full capacity after all implementation work is completed.