Guide
Amasra castle is not one fortress but two, joined by the bridge known as the Boztepe arch: the Sormagir castle on Boztepe and the Zindan castle. It was in use in the Genoese period and underwent substantial repairs in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The eastern walls, running between northeast and southeast, are 65 metres long; the southern walls run 300 metres and carry eight bastions; the northern walls, from the Kemere bridge onwards, run about 200 metres and are largely destroyed. On Sormagir the north and northwest sides drop to the sea as a sheer cliff, so no wall was built there; most of the walls enclosing its east, northeast and west sides have fallen, and a fifty-metre stretch of the western wall adjoining the gate is still standing. Look for the details scattered through the fabric: tower cavities, internal divisions, Genoese coats of arms set at particular points, and figures including Eros, Medusa, eagles and ox heads. The castle is in the centre of Amasra.
