Join us for a visit to Marmaris Castle right above the centre, in defense of the city for over 5000 years already.
The Marmaris Castle was originally built on a peninsula behind Marmaris harbour. It was first mentioned by Heredot of Halicarnassus (see our Bodrum review) who lived between 490 B.C - 425 B.C. He says that the first city walls in Marmaris were constructed in 3,000 BC. In 138 B.C., the 3rd King of Bergama, Attalos, whose predecessors had dominated Caria for 90 years, bequeathed Physkos to Rome and Roman generals ruled the town from Rhodes.
Ottomans conquered the current castle in 1390 A.D. The only known written source about the construction of the castle is by Evliya Çelebit, an Ottoman traveler who visited Muğla and its surroundings in the 17th century. He wrote in his Book of Travels, Seyahatname that Sultan Suleiman had ordered the construction of a castle before his expedition to Rhodes in 1552 AD. He had also changed the name of the city to Mimaras, which in time gave us the current Marmaris. A local rumour has it that the name was changed because when he arrived after his invasion to Rhodes, Suleiman disliked the castle and exclaimed “mimar as!”, - “hang the architect!” - true or not, for you to decide.
The walls are 10 meters high and 1.5 meters thick. A French warship bombed the castle in WWI and destroyed a big part of it. Furthermore, the 1957 earthquakes in Fethiye almost destroyed the city. Only the castle and some historic buildings surrounding the fortress were left undamaged.
Until 1979, there were eighteen flats where local people lived enjoying the fountain and the cistern inside the castle. Eventually in 1991, the castle opened as a museum being now one of the few in Turkey where there is actually a museum. There are seven rooms exhibiting artefacts in a chronological order from Bronze age, Archaic age, Classical period, Hellenistic age, Roman and Byzantine periods to the current days of the Republic of Türkiye.
The castle is not good for visitors in wheelchairs or with a pram - to get there goes steep uphill and the museum is full of stairs. The loo is clean but not suited for handicapped visitors.
There is a small shop at the ticket counter. There is no café in the museum but as you are only a step from Marmaris centre, you have a lot of choice after your visit.
Marmaris Kalesi
Tepe, 30. Sk No:54, 48700 Marmaris, Muğla
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