Rumeli Fortress

Rumeli Hisarı

Built in first half of the 15th century, this is the large medieval castle under the Second Bosphorus Bridge. Its former name Boğazkesen (Turkish)/Laimokopia (Greek) means both "strait-blocker" and "throat-cutter" in both languages and denotes the reason of its building—to shut the supply routes from the Black Sea in the north into the slowly falling apart Byzantine Empire through the Bosphorus. Rumeli, literally "the Roman land", was the name of the European half of the Ottoman Empire, and as is usual with some other structures and villages along the Bosphorus, used as a prefix to differentiate Rumeli Hisarı from its counterpart in the Asian Side, the much smaller Anadolu Hisarı just across the Bosphorus.

• history
• museum

Getting there

Bebek 1.7 km, Aşiyan 350 m, Rumeli Hisarı 450 m; on the waterfront avenue

Hours

09:00-17:00 (closed Mon)

Price

130 TL (about €4.25)

Website

muze.gov.tr (opens in a new tab)