Torul Castle, Torul

Torul Castle in the municipality of Torul, Turkey, was constructed by Genoese who came from Trabzon during the Fourth Crusade.

The earliest phase of the site reflects its origins as a communications tower, erected to serve as a fire or beacon station. Its location and form were intended to relay signals across the landscape. The Genoese builders established the fortification during the upheavals of the crusading period in the eastern Black Sea region.

In later medieval centuries the site is also identified as Zegan, or Zigana, Castle. In the early 1400s the castle served as the residence of Haldia’s duke Cyril Cabasica. During the same general period the Georgian Kabazites family, dukes of Haldia, used the stronghold as their home and imposed a chimney tax on Turks passing nearby. Members of the Kabazites carried out raids and engaged in armed clashes with local Çepni groups. Sheikh Cüneyd attempted several times to take the castle, which at that time was occupied by Greeks or Georgians, but his efforts did not succeed.

Military control changed in 1479 when Rakkas Sinan Bey captured the fortress by order of the Amasya governor Bayezit, acting under a firman issued by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. Contemporary accounts describe this action as the final conquest of the Haldia district. Over subsequent centuries the structure fell into disuse and decay and is now described as ruined. Between 2016 and 2018 a glass viewing terrace was added at the site, and the terrace recorded large numbers of visitors in the months and years following its construction.