Ayasuluk Castle Restorations

Abstract

Ayasuluk Castle was built at the highest elevation of the hill rising to the south west of the modern Selçuk settlement in Selçuk district of İzmir province today. Functional structures such as castles, bridges, cisterns, and roads are often functional structures that do not represent a community, nationality, or religion (such as a palace, temple, or victory monument). Therefore, even if the sovereignty in an area is different, such functional structures have not been destroyed, even repaired and reused. The different phases seen when looking at Ayasuluk Castle show this. The earliest phase of Ayasuluk Castle that has been found so far is the Hellenistic period city wall ruins on the southeast skirts of Ayasuluk Castle, which is still standing today. These ruins show that there was a castle structure since the Hellenistic period. It is known that the Ayasuluk Castle, which is still standing today, was built during the Byzantine period. However, most of the building we see today are Restoration and Early Ottoman additions. When the Ayasuluk Castle Restorations started in the 1960s, the purpose was the same as in the restoration activities of the entire period, and the area that can be best seen from the city was to become a destination center. For this reason, the part of the Ayasuluk Castle that will be seen in Selçuk has been restored on the east and south facades. Afterwards, studies were carried out in an area that was destroyed in the early 2000s, and Pamukkale University Archeology Department The necessary projects for the restoration of the Ayasuluk Castle were prepared and the restorations were initiated as a part of the scientific studies initiated with the presidency of Asst. Assoc. Dr. Mustafa BÜYÜKKOLANCI with the aim of opening the castle to visitors. The strengthening works of the Castle, which was opened to visitors in 2014, continued until 2017 and it was aimed to continue these studies with sustainable conservation studies. It is aimed to reach results for the applications that should be in historical buildings through the history of 60 years of restoration applications, developing and changing conservation awareness, faulty applications that continue until today and incorrectly used materials.