With our time in Bodrum restricted, once we had got the priority boat admin sorted out, our stroll around the town took us to “the absolute must see” site of the castle which dominates the harbour.
The Knights of St John started building St Peter’s castle in 1406 on the site of an older Byzantine castle. Building continued until 1522 and the castle was renowned as the strongest in the Mediterranean. To reach the centre you have to pass through seven gates and lines of defences. There are 5 major towers, each built by a different nation, and adorning the walls are carved 249 coats of arms for the various Grand Masters of the Knights of St John and his castle commanders. The castle was manned by 50 Knights of St John and around 150 of their soldiers.
Despite its strength, the demise of the influence and power of the crusaders in the region isolated the castle, particularly after Rhodes was captured by the Turks. The castle was therefore handed over to the Turks on 5th January 1523 without a fight. Subsequently, in the Ottoman period, the castle lost its significance because the Ottoman empire extended well to the south.
The castle remained largely unchanged by its new Turkish owners except for converting the church to a mosque. Later, in 1895, the castle became a prison with 700 prisoners and 50 guards and a Turkish bath house for built their use.
The most damage inflicted on the castle was by the French battleship Duplex which shelled the castle on 26 May 1915. More recently, in the early 1960s, the castle was used for storing artifacts before becoming a museum in 1964.
Today the museum contains the world’s largest collection of artifacts from underwater excavation. Some of the artifacts were raised by sponge divers but, starting in the 1960s, there were a series of scientific underwater excavations of ancient shipwreck sites: at Finike-Gelidonya a 12th century BC shipwreck; at Bodrum-Yassiada a 7th century AD Byzantine shipwreck, a 4th century AD late Roman shipwreck and a 16th century AD Ottoman shipwreck; at Finike-şeytan a 16th century BC Deresi shipwreck; at Marmaris Serçe Limani an 11th century AD glass shipwreck and a 3rd century BC Hellenistic shipwreck; and, finally, at Kas-Uluburun a 14th century BC shipwreck. We have already anchored in some of these locations and had heard about the shipwrecks so were very much looking forward to seeing what had been raised.
Serçe Limani harbour 11th century AD shipwreck |
Glass from various 14th century BC and 11th century AD shipwrecks |
The underwater archaelogical displays are set up in the various castle buildings so between each display you are wandering through the grounds of the castle (which are a botanical garden) and climbing the towers.
12th and 14th century BC shipwreck artefacts |
Carian Princess hall |
English Tower |
After 2 nights in Bodrum our time was up and we were ready to move on. The forecast for the following week was not great with strong winds expected from the north so we needed to take advantage of the next day’s strong southeasterly wind to help us move north up the Turkish coast.
Bodrum, Turkey |
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