Çimpe Castle

Çimpe Castle, locally known as Çimpe Kalesi, lies on a hill south of the town of Bolayır, in the province of Çanakkale in Turkey.

Although this structure is called a castle, it is obviously a fort. It is situated on the highest hill, in the middle of the narrowest point of the isthmus connecting the Gallipoli peninsula to the mainland. It is a very strategic position with wide views over both the Gulf of Saros to the west and the entrance of the Sea of Marmara into the Dardanelles Strait to the east.

The fort was named after a Byzantine castle, called Tzympe, which was situated at or near this site. That Byzantine castle came into the hands of the Ottomans in the 1350s, either by being taken at night by the forces of Süleyman Pasha (son of Orhan) or after being granted to the Ottomans by the Byzantine emperor John VI Kantakouzenos after their help in his civil war against John V Palailogos. Of that Byzantine castle nothing remains.

The present fort, facing north, was built by the British and the French in 1853, when they were allies of the Ottoman Empire in the Crimean War. The fort, then also known as the Bolayır Central Redoubt, was strengthened by the Ottomans during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. It has a crescent shape with a protective trench in front of it and would have been armed with 11 cannons.

At present Çimpe Castle is freely accessible. A nice fort, off the beaten track.

Gallery