The story of Zilkale

Zilkale's name comes not from a bell but from a slip of the tongue: it was originally "Zir kale", meaning "Lower Castle", and locals turned it into "Zil Kale". It sits 12 km south of Çamlıhemşin in the Fırtına Valley, on a sheer rock about 100 m above the stream bed. Nobody knows exactly when it was first built; it is said to date from the 14th or 15th century and guarded an important medieval caravan route to Bayburt.

Genoese, Greeks and Ottomans used it until the late 1800s. The castle has eight bastions and a watchtower. Inside the middle castle, look for the guardhouse, the chapel and the main tower, which seems to have had four floors and is topped by a terrace.

In 1979 two brass hand cannons found here went to the Trabzon Museum. Restoration in 2008-2010 and a 2013 concert by pianist Tuluyhan Uğurlu made the castle widely known.