Kite Castle

Kite Castle, built by the Byzantines, stands in Ürünlü Mahallesi, Nilüfer municipality, Turkey.

During the Byzantine era the site was an important regional defense and administrative center known as Kitai. It served as a tekfurluk, a local lordship in the province of Bithynia, and controlled the supply route between Prusa (Bursa) and Apollonia (Gölyazı), making it a strategic point for movements and communications across the plain.

In the early 14th century the castle became a target in the widening conflict with the rising Ottoman principality. After the 1302 Koyunhisar battle the Ottomans imposed blockades on İznik and Bursa and directed operations against fortifications in the surrounding countryside, including Kite, as noted by Halil İnalcık. Following the 1303 Dimbos engagement the local tekfuru who had joined forces opposing the Ottomans withdrew into the stronghold; Osman Gazi’s troops besieged and rapidly took the castle, and the Aşıkpaşazade chronicle records that the Kite tekfuru was executed before the fortress.

The castle remained in use under Ottoman administration. A 1660 register of defensive fiefs lists Kite among the castles of the Hüdavendigar sanjak and records timar grants to its garrison, which indicates an active military presence in the mid-17th century. A 1732 imperial berth names an emekdar, Mustafa, among the castle’s officers, showing continued service by appointed personnel. Stones from the fortification were later removed and reused when the village hamam called Kite Hamam was constructed in the village square.