Izmir city in castles: Byzantion and Turkish Period

Humankind has had instinct of protection by its very nature since his existence. Therefore, human has put up a wall around his shelter since the first ages to protect his family and food, then with the other human communities they lived together founded settlements and by ramparting these settlements for their protection they built the first castles.Anatolia takes place in a point Asia, Europe and Africa continents come closer and connects these three continents to each other. İzmir, third biggest metropolis of Turkey, has been one of the most important centers of Anatolia since antique age because of its geographical and geopolitics position. In İzmir hosting various civilizations, respectively Roman, Byzantine, Turkish Principalities and Ottoman dominated. Izmir, which is in a position as a gate of Anatolia to Europe via Western Anatolia, has always protected its feature of being an important harbor city. In the city, settlement has not only occurred in coastal port, but also it has gained intensity in the center of the city. For this reason against a possible attack from the sea or land, defensive castles were built and the settlement was planned by taking these castles as key points. Thus a model of city planning in the form of castle-city and port-castle has set up. In İzmir province city center and in districts dependant to the center, there are eıght castles researched. These castles are Kadife Castle, Çeşme Castle, Foça Beş Kapılar Castle, Ayasuluk Castle, Keçi Castle, Çandarlı Castle, Sığacık Castle and Metropolis Castle.Izmir castles are architectural structure of Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Turkish period. Except for Kadife Castle in the city center, all the other castles were built in districts dependant on center. In this thesis which will be , handling which period İzmir castles belong to, architectural features, their positions in historical process, construction and material techniques, its cycle of repairment and addition, it can be reached determination about defense architecture and city history; in this respect this study has a great significance.