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Anadoluhisarı (Anatolian Fortress) is a medieval Ottoman fortress located in Istanbul on the Asian side of the Bosporus. The complex is the oldest surviving Turkish architectural structure built in Istanbul, and further gives its name to the neighborhood around it in the city's Beykoz district.
Anadoluhisarı was built between 1393 and 1394 on the commission of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I, as part of his preparations for a siege of the then-Byzantine city of Constantinople.
Constructed on an area of 7,000 square metres, the fortress is situated at the narrowmost point of the Bosporus. Erected primarily as a watch fort, the citadel has a 25 meters tall, quadratic main tower within the walls of an irregular pentagon, with five watchtowers at the corners.
Constantinople was blockaded from 1394 on, but Bayezid's campaign was first interrupted by the Crusade of Nicopolis, and then ended with his defeat at the Battle of Ankara. An 11-year civil war followed, which ended with the ascent of Mehmed I to the throne. His grandson, Sultan Mehmed II reinforced the fortress with a two-meter-thick wall and three additional watchtowers, and added further extensions, including a warehouse and living quarters. As part of his plans to launch a renewed military campaign to conquer Constantinople, Mehmed II further built a sister structure to Anadoluhisarı across the Bosphorus called Rumelihisarı. The two fortresses worked in tandem in 1453 to throttle all maritime traffic along the Bosphorus, thus helping the Ottomans achieve their goal of making the city of Constantinople (later renamed Istanbul) their new imperial capital.
After the Ottoman conquest of the city, Anadoluhisarı served as a customs house and military prison, and after several centuries, fell into disrepair.
After the fall of the Ottomans and the 1923 establishment of the Republic of Turkey, the newly created Turkish Ministry of Culture tended to and ultimately restored the site in 1991–1993. Today, Anadoluhisarı lends a picturesque appearance to its corner of the Bosphorus alongside the timber yalı homes that define the neighborhood, and functions as a historical site, although it is not open to the public. The latest restoration was conducted by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality which started in 2021.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.