Architecture Monument - Genoa Fortress (Sudak Fortress)

The Genoese fortress in Sudak is a monument of medieval architecture of world importance, it is the only Genoese citadel preserved in the Crimea. When in the second half of the XII century in the Crimea there were envoys of the mighty Byzantine state - Venetians, Pizans and Genoese, they actively traded with Russian, Polovets and Central Asian merchants. Gradually, the Genoese captured the entire coast from the Bosporus (Kerchi) to Chersonesos (now the area of Sevastopol). Kafa (Feodosia) became the capital of the colony in the Crimea, and Sudak, it was decided to make a military base. We started with the construction of the now world famous fortress. This fortress has suffered in its lifetime and seen everyone. It was stormed several times by Seljuk Turks and Tatars. On its stones you can still see traces of nuclei, sharp blades and peak. As time has shown, the Genoese fortress was far from fake: it withstood everything. Apparently, the Italians knew a lot about fortification. Built according to the project of Genoese fortifiers in the best traditions of the Western European Middle Ages, the fortress amazes with the perfection of engineering thought. The area of the fortress is 29.5 hectares. It is located on a cone-shaped mountain of an ancient coral reef. From the east and south, the citadel is impregnable, from the west - difficult to access, from the north-east access is blocked by a deep ditch. The fortress has two layers of defense. The lower one is an external massive wall with a height of 6-8 meters and a thickness of 1.5-2 meters. The wall is reinforced by fourteen 15-meter battle towers and the Main Gate complex. The upper tier consists of the Consular Castle and the towers connected by a wall, as well as the Watchtower complex at the very top. Between these defensive tiers there were streets and peaceful urban buildings, the remains of the city quarters are clearly visible to this day at sunrise and sunset. The city has always been in a semi-military or military situation. It is known that the consul, who is the commandant of the fortress, the head of the garrison and the manager of finances, had no right to spend a single night outside the city. After sunset, the gates of the fortress were locked, and a drawbridge rose across the moat. The two-story Watchtower at the very top of the plan forms an irregular quadrangle. Only three walls remained of the tower, the fourth collapsed into the sea. Traces of a fireplace, a niche, a stone staircase are preserved. At the end of the XIX century, a fresco clearly appeared on one of the walls depicting a Catholic Madonna, whose heart is pierced with seven swords. Apparently, it was a house chapel dedicated to the Holy Virgin Mary. Near the Watchtower is the Corner Tower. The inscription on the slab embedded in the wall allows you to accurately date the construction of 1386. In the walls of the tower there are 27 more plates with crosses of various shapes. On both sides of it, two pools were cut into the rock, which were filled with water from a small river. The consular castle is a complex of buildings, the most interesting of the preserved in the fortress. The main tower, called the donjon, occupies the entire transverse space of the upper part of the fortress and is connected by thick walls to the second tower in the northeast corner of the castle. On the first floor of this tower there is a niche with a rounded top. A small slab above it was once decorated with a bas-relief image of St. George the Victorious, from where the name of the tower – St. George comes. The consul probably had his own house near the castle, but in wartime he lived only in the donjon, in a large room with a fireplace located on the first floor. Very interesting are the preserved inscriptions on the gates and towers of the lower fortress wall. Above the gate on the stone slab is carved: "1389, the ninth day of July, during the reign of the excellent and powerful husband of Mr. Batista di Zoali, before the death of the king of the city." Andolo, the Honorable Consul of Soldaya. Thank God. Inscribed on the north wall is: "On the first day of August, during the reign of the excellent and powerful husband of Mr. Jacob Torcello, the Honorable Consul and Commandant of Soldaya." The date is illegible, but at the end of the XIX century it was possible to disassemble 1382 or 1385. Under the loopholes of the Beriabo di Franci di Pagano tower was a slab with the inscription: "1414, on the fourth day of July, the construction of the present fortress is completed ..." The circular tower differs from the rest in its semicircular shape, there is a hypothesis that it was built by the Byzantines. Under the tower found more ancient masonry. During excavations in 1928 in the lowest layer of the earth were the remains of pottery and other items of Taurian origin. The plate on the tower of Lucini de Flisco Lavani reads: "1409, on the first day of August..." The western wall of the Corrado Chicalo tower used to be decorated with a slab depicting the coat of arms of Genoa and eagles on the sides. The year of the construction of the tower on the plate is 1404. It strikes with its fate an ancient temple on the territory of the fortress. According to the assumption of A. L. Berthier-Delagarde and other scientists, first there was a mosque built by the Seljuk Turks in the 20s of the XIII century. Then it was apparently rebuilt into an Orthodox church, and then by the Genoese into a Catholic church. After the capture of Sudak by the Turks, it again became a mosque. And after the annexation of Crimea to Russia, there was an Orthodox military church, a German church, an Armenian Catholic church.