Gerede Asar Kalesi stands on a rocky hill commanding the country in every direction, 20 kilometres east of Gerede near the villages of Örencik, Çağış and Akçaşehir. A cave opens on the castle facing north.
Its date rests on pottery rather than documents: Byzantine sherds lie in quantity on the ground around it, and the provincial directorate takes that as showing the castle is Byzantine.
The directorate also passes on a local account, marked as such. It is related that a passage ran beneath the Ulusu stream between this hill and the hill to its east; people lived in a town on the eastern hill and, when an enemy attacked, came up through the passage to Asar Kale to defend themselves.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Bolu as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 0.6 °C in January to 20 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (61 mm) and lightest in August (24 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
