📜 What do the documents say?
Because of its strategic and fortified position, the castle was used continuously
for defence from the Bronze Age to the end of the Ottoman period.2
Its first construction is thought to date from around 3200 BC.3
In the sources it is called Harşena Kalesi, Yukarı Kale (the Upper Castle),
Kale-i Bâlâ, Muşalem or Kal'a-i Kahkaha-yı Rum.4, 5
In terms of the area it covers, it is divided into three parts — the Hatuniye
neighbourhood, the Kızlar Sarayı and the castle proper;6 architecturally
it consisted of two main parts, the Enderun Kalesi (the Lower or Inner Castle) and
the Harşena Kalesi (the Upper Castle).7, 8
After the defeat of Mithradates by the Romans it was pulled down by
Pompey, and later repaired by the Romans.8
It was not only soldiers who lived in the castle. Within the thin walls stood
mud-brick houses where the servants and the castle commander
lived.7 There were also an old-style palace, the Yıldırım Han
Mosque (the Andre Church, converted into a mosque after the Christians were
moved out), a madrasa, a dervish lodge, a public kitchen, two bathhouses,
dungeons, powder stores, wheat granaries, cisterns and water wells.9
🗣️ What do the people say?
According to the narrative, when Harşena Castle was being built, the stones were
hauled on sledges with deer in harness.
The note of Mustafa Güler, who collected this narrative, is also worth recording —
he too leaves the verdict to the reader:
“We make no judgement on whether this is true or false. But even if the work was
done by people, would not the hauling of the stones in those days, and their being
carried up there, be the stuff of legend?”10
This section is a folk narrative, not a document. Güler adds that all the
castles in Anatolia are told of in this way — so this is not a narrative peculiar
to Amasya.10
Did Evliya exaggerate again?
We have to ask, because Evliya's numbers sometimes do not add up. And on this page
we show where he is right and where he is not, side by side.
Where he is wrong
Evliya lists the districts (kaza) and sub-districts (nahiye) of the
sancak of Amasya. This list does not match the 1642 land survey (tapu
tahrir) records of the sancak of Amasya. An example: Bulak, which
Evliya calls the seat of a district, is a village of three hundred people in
the register.14
Where he is right
He writes that
the underside of the castle is full of caves — and
that is true: the rock beneath the castle is still full of hollows today, the
best known being the
Rock Tombs of the Kings. He
adds that
the people took refuge in these caves during the Celali
revolts.
Why do we still read him? Because Evliya does not only give measurements; he
records how a city saw itself. That he calls the castle “the work of
Ferhat” tells us not who built the castle, but which story the people of
17th-century Amasya attached to it — and that too is a document.
💧 Cilanbolu and the diver who never came back
In the middle of Harşena Castle, on the high ground in line with the great gate, there
is a well: Cilanbolu. It descends from south to north, and you go down by
some hundred and fifty steps. Its mouth is wide and round; it begins as masonry
and further down continues as a passage cut into the rock. Deeper down, the steps
have been lost through damage.15
Vâzıh Efendi (1764–1831), the scholar who wrote the first city history of
Amasya, records an incident connected with this well. The governor Mikdad Ahmet
Paşa wonders where the water comes in and where it goes out, and finds a diver.
The diver's condition is this:
“Sir, I will go into this well. If I come out of the water safe and sound, I have no
doubt that you will pay me my fee and more. But I may not come back safe and sound.
So give me my blood-money now, so that I may divide it among my heirs with my
own hand, according to the law of inheritance. Only then will I dive into the water.”
They agree on 2500 kuruş. The man shares the money out among his heirs with his own
hand, and then dives.
“And gone he was, for good!”
Hoping that at least his body would come up to the surface of the water or out into
the river, they wait day and night for a long time. It is never seen. Vâzıh Efendi
draws this conclusion from the incident: the water's outlet is wide enough for a
man, but where this water goes is not known.16
This is not a legend but an incident recorded by Vâzıh Efendi. Even so, it
rests on a single source.
Key facts
- First built
- Around 3200 BC (Bronze Age)3
- Built by
- Disputed — see above11, 12, 13
- Other names
- Harşena Kalesi, Yukarı Kale, Kale-i Bâlâ, Muşalem, Kal'a-i Kahkaha-yı Rum4, 5
- Parts
- Hatuniye neighbourhood · Kızlar Sarayı · the castle proper6
- Location
- 40.655211, 35.827452 — verified against OpenStreetMap
- In the book
- Kültürel Miras Boyutuyla Amasya, p. 61
📍 Open on the map
