Fatih Belediyesi Yedikule Hisarı

This guide to Yedikule Hisari in Istanbul follows the fortress from its origins as Constantinople's ceremonial Golden Gate, through Mehmed the Second's decision to enclose rather than destroy it, to its later use holding the imperial treasury and then prisoners of state, from foreign ambassadors to deposed princes. It centers on seventeen-year-old Sultan Osman the Second, who tried to break the power of the Janissaries and instead found himself dragged into these dungeons on the night of May 20, 1622, fighting in the dark. Picture the arch of the old Golden Gate as you walk the fortress walls.