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Hoşap Castle

Hoşap Castle

Photo: Dûrzan Cîrano · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Gürpınar, Turkey
Client / Owner
Sarı Süleyman Bey
Year
Completed 1649
Access
Public
Typology
Cultural
Style
—

Hoşap Castle is a large 17th-century castle in the village of Hoşab, in Gürpınar District, Van Province, Turkey, about 50 kilometers from the center of Van. Sarı Süleyman Bey, chief of the Kurdish Mahmudi tribe, built or rebuilt most of the surviving masonry, including the entrance tower and outer walls, in 1649.

The eastern stretches and towers preserve the layout of an earlier Armenian fortress, which itself followed an Urartian stronghold. The name comes from the nearby Hoşap River, and Hoşap means "fresh water" in Persian.

Kurdish beys ruled semi-independently until 1847, when the Ottoman government ended their rule. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism controls the castle today, and it is open to the public.

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