Castle of Kars

An Ottoman-era fortress on the hill above Kars city, offering views across the plateau

The Castle of Kars sits on a rocky outcrop above the city and has been fortified since at least the medieval period, though most of the current structure dates from the Safavid and Ottoman periods with substantial Russian modifications. The castle is free to enter and the walk up takes about 20 minutes from the city centre.

The views from the walls across the plateau of northeastern Turkey are the main reason to climb up — the scale of the landscape, with its flat steppe running to distant mountains, explains both the strategic importance of this position and the particular bleakness that Orhan Pamuk captured in his novel Snow. The city below looks more ordered from up here, the Russian grid plan evident against the surrounding irregular terrain.

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The castle at Kars changed hands more times than almost any other fortress in the region — captured by the Ottomans, retaken by Persians, taken by Russians three times in the 19th century, each time with great loss of life. The Russians rebuilt and modernised it significantly after their 1855 capture during the Crimean War, which is why the current fortifications look more 19th-century European than medieval.