Castle :: ARMENIAN HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Castle 1712 — 1724 yy․

Azerbaijan / Northern Artsakh / Gandzak / Gandzak / Baghmanlar

Location
1712 — 1724 yy․

The castle of Gandzak towered between the city’s Turkish quarter and Norashen, “...west of the local market...”, on the left bank of the river Gandzak. “It was built between 1712 and 1724, during the thirty-year Turkish domination in the region...”

“Krunk Hayots Ashkhari,” 1861, p. 360.
Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, pp. 58-59.

Description

Below follows another record with more details concerning the monument, “...Located between the Turkish quarter and Norashen, it occupies an area of 700 sazhens and represents an unequal quadrangle built of brick, lime and sheetrock. The castle, which used to have a tower on each of its northern and southern sides, has preserved embrasures in its corners. The proper arrangement of its different parts, the skillful construction technique and the durability of the building material used indicate that it was not erected without European architects’ participation. A moat, five sazhens deep and equally wide, can be seen around the castle: in wartime it was generally filled with water, with a suspension bridge lying over it.” The stronghold, which occupied a territory of a square verst, used to be fortified by 6 towers.

Jalaliants, S. A Travel to Great Armenia, part 1, Tpghis, 1842, p. 172.
Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 59.

1869 y․

One of the “Kavkas” correspondents who travelled in Gandzak in 1869 found the monument dilapidated: “This castle represents a heap of ruins both outwardly and inwardly. All its buildings seem to have suffered a deluge which reduced them to this state of devastation.”

Semyonov, I. Yelizavetpol. In: “Kavkaz,” 1869, No. 131, 7 (19) November, p. 2 (the original reads, “Крепость эта как снаружи, так и внутри представляет картину разрушения. Постройки тут все какия-то допотопныя, ветхия”).
Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 59.

1903 y․

In 1903 “the only reminder of the existence of Ganja’s once formidable castle was a small earthen hill, the rest of the area being occupied by some municipal buildings and the barracks of Aslanduz Reserve Battalion.”

A. P. A Day in Yelizavetpol. In: “Kavkaz,” 1903, No. 121, p. 2 (the original reads, “На месте же когда-то грозной крeпости Ганжинской остался лишь небольшой обрывокъ землянаго вала, а вся остальная площадь занята частью городскими постройками, а частью казармами квартирующаго здъсь асландузскаго резервнаго батальона”).
Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 60.

Type Measurement
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Author Archive
Source Sketch
Date 1804 y․

The plan of Gandzak Castle (photo 1804)