Rumkale

P3

Rumkale ( in Halfeti ) on his lonely hill at the junction of the Euphrates (September 2006)

Rum Kalesi ( " Rhomäische fortress ", Turkish روم قلعه سى Rum kalesi, IA rum Kal ʿ esi, Greek Ρωμαιων Κουλα, Armenian: Հռոմկլայ - Hromkla, Assyrian: Kala - Rhomata, Arabic قلعة الروم, Qal ʿ at DMG ar-Rum ) is today is a ruined castle on the Euphrates in the west of Şanlıurfa, formerly Edessa. It is situated in the Turkish province of Gaziantep district Yavuzeli.

History

The oldest parts of the castle were built by the Byzantines ( Rhomäern ) followed probably also leaves the designation Rum Kalesi or Rumkale, " castle of the Romans ' lead back. Since the first crusade Rumkale / Hromkla belonged as " Ranculat " to the territory of the crusader Principality of Edessa. 1151 moved Gregory III. Pahlavuni, the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, at the invitation of Beatrice, the widow of Joscelin II of Edessa, from his office in Tzvok ' after Hromkla. According to Bar Hebraeus he drove out the local castellan Michael; but he seems to have bought the Byzantine castle in truth and turned it into an almost impregnable fortress. 1150-1292 Hromkla was the official residence of the Armenian Patriarch of Cilicia ( then Sis ). Resided here and was laid to rest Catholicos Nerses IV also Schnorhali.

1179 met in Hromkla a council on the issue of unification of the Armenian with the Byzantine church. Participants included the Catholicos of the Caucasian Albanians and bishops of Greater Armenia, but not the union chief enemy of the significant local monasteries Haghpat and Sanahin.

Frequently a guest in Hromkla the Patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church from the nearby monastery was Barsauma. Patriarch Ignatius III. David (1222-1252) let convert the entire library of this monastery after Hromkla, including original manuscripts of the Patriarch Michael I the Great. († 1199 ). After several years' residence in Hromkla died, David Ignatius is buried there in 1252.

In the scriptorium of Hromkla worked in the second half of the 13th century, the illuminator Toros Roslin.

On June 28, 1292, the castle was conquered by the Muslim Mamluks under Sultan Khalil. After Hethum of Korykos the Conqueror Stephen IV Catholicos, Bishops, Vardapets, priests and many Christians captured and handed over to the Bishop's Palace and Church of Hromkla formerly Christian apostates. Stephen IV was brought to Egypt, where he died after a year of captivity.

Hromkla remained among the Muslims an important fortress, in the Ottoman period also state prison. In 1832 it was destroyed by Ibrahim Pasha in part and has since been empty. It can be reached only by boat. In recent years, archaeologists have begun exploring the ruins.

Plant

Lower parts of the system disappeared during the construction of Birecik dam that makes the castle for visitors as well as inaccessible.