Güvercinada Castle

Güvercinada Castle, locally known as Güvercinada Kalesi or Kuşadasι Kale, lies on a small island, in the harbor of the town Kuşadasι, in the province of Aydιn in Turkey.

The town of Kuşadasι dates back to Antiquity, when it was known as Ephesus Neopolis. Probably there would have been buildings or maybe even a fortification on the island of Güvercinada in those times. An inscription above the gate of the castle bears the year 1242. The square Byzantine keep of the castle dates back to that time. The present castle, however, is said to have been built by Hayreddin Barbarossa, an Ottoman naval admiral, in the mid-16th century. It protected the local harbor at the mouth of the Gulf of Kuşadasι.

The castle has an irregular shape as its walls follow the contours of the island. The island is linked to the shore by a causeway.

When I visited, the castle was closed due to restoration, although not a lot of work seemed to be going on. On the internet, I read it had already been closed since the summer of 2013. Too bad, it looked very promising, and I would have liked to visit its interior.

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