Fortress Rumeli Hisar, or Rumeli Fortress, located on the European side of Istanbul between the two bridges over the Bosphorus at its narrowest part, to the north of the Bebek district. She was built in 1452 opposite the other Hissar fortress Anadulu located on the Asian shore of the strait and is a strategically important object of the Ottoman Empire on the Bosphorus, guarding the gates of the Golden Horn Bay.

The castle was built at that time in record time - 4 months and 16 days. Total area facilities was more than 30 thousand sq. M. m. After the building of Rumeli became impossible to sail the Bosphorus, the narrow space between the fortresses, and the fortress itself was called "cut throat".

The Rumeli Hisar was organized garrison of Janissaries, daily sweep the Strait of its giant guns, and the passage of foreign ships on the Bosphorus was forbidden. Once a Venetian ship tried to break into the city, and ignored the signal to stop. He was immediately sunk, and all miraculously survived sailors impaled. Since then, the cannon mounted in the fortress was used as a preventive and volleys of fireworks.

After the fall of Constantinople, the fortress served as a customs checkpoint. Buildings Citadel hard hit first by the earthquake in 1509, and then during a fire in 1746 soon Rumeli Hisar completely lost its strategic importance, and it turned into a prison.

The fortress consists of 3 large (round) and 13 small towers, which were connected by thick, the ten-walls.
Each of the main towers, leading to the fortress, had three gates. In the south tower had the same secret gate to grocery stores and arsenal. Inside the citadel were placed wooden barracks where the soldiers were, and the small size of the mosque, under which there is a large reservoir.

Update fortress was dedicated to the conquest of the city quincentenary of Constantinople in 1953, but it only fully restored in 1958. The castle was in 1960, opened the Summer Theatre and the Museum of Artillery. Now it is arranged inside the park and an amphitheater with rows of stone seats for concerts. On the walls of the local no fences, stairs are steep and uneven. Climb them to be very careful. Something which reaches the height of twenty meters, which also serves as a good occasion to once again not to climb, and just sit quietly on the benches and enjoy the views from the fortress.