Malatya Castle

This is one of the must-see historical places. Malatya Castle, which is easy to reach with its proximity to the center, will impress the visitors with its historical appearance. The castle is in Battalgazi. Battalgazi is known as the old Malatya. Malatya Castle is 11 km from the city.

History

The construction of the castle started in 79 AD. The castle was not completed for a long time after its construction began. The castle was built by Titus Livius as a wall around the city for security.

The walls, which were destroyed in 532, were repaired by the emperor Constantius. Later, it was restored by the emperor Justinian in 532 and it was fully used.

Sur Beşgen was founded on a plan. According to research, it is thought that the city wall has 95 bastions and 11 gates. The wall was built with large and small stones. Cut stone was used in the repairs made later.

After the city was captured by Gümüştekin Ahmet Gazi from Danişment in 1102, the city walls were restored.

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Evliya Çelebi talks about the city walls in his travel book and gives information about the city walls. Evliya Celebi says in his travel book:

“The Armenians forcibly conquered the Malatya Castle from their hands and conquered this Cezire Castle with a sea of ​​soldiers within that month, crashing on it and striking a sword.”

Evliya Çelebi also refers to these walls as “Rakabe Castle”. Later, he says that Prophet Yunus came to faith while he was in the city of Mosul. That’s why he says that Prophet Yunus had a castle built here.

When Malatya came under Turkish rule, the walls were very weak. For defense, these walls were strengthened and enlarged. At that time, these walls played an important role in defense.

Today;

These walls, which maintained their importance until the seventeenth century, were destroyed a lot after that.

Very little of it has survived to the present day. The entrance gate of the castle was restored in 2011. The restoration of the castle is still ongoing.

The castle, which became epic with the heroism of Battal Gazi, is approximately 2 thousand 850 meters long. Restoration of the 550-meter section of the walls began in November 2010.

Recently, a part of the wall was demolished during the restoration works and it frightened everyone. It was fortunate that no one was present at the time of the collapse.

You can feel the traces of many civilizations by seeing this castle. With a tiny stone, you can learn about the construction of that time.