Description of the attraction
The Bendery Fortress is an architectural monument of the 16th century, the walls of which have survived to this day in their original form, one of the main attractions of the city of the same name.
The fortress was erected on the right bank of the Dniester River, by order of the Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who was subordinate to the Moldavian principality at that time. The architect was the famous architect Sinan-Ibn Abdulmeyan-agha.
The Bendery fortress was built according to the canons of Western European bastion-type fortresses, over the next centuries it was repeatedly expanded and rebuilt. In the seventeenth century. the fortress consisted of a citadel built in the form of an irregular polygon. Eight towers were erected at the corners, three of which are round, four are square, and one tower is multifaceted. Under each tower there were deep cellars in which gunpowder, weapons and provisions for the soldiers were stored. The height of the walls that connected the towers to each other reached three meters. In one of the towers there was a mosque of the Prophet Suleiman.
The largest was the upper part of the fortress, which consisted of ten bastions connected by fortress walls, over which an earthen rampart towered. At the same time, the height of the walls reached about five meters, and the thickness - six. A wide moat was dug around the fortress, which, if necessary, was filled with water.
The lower part of the fortress consisted of six towers and was intended mainly for the residence of janissaries, gunsmiths and artisans serving the army.
Throughout the history of its existence, the fortress has been repeatedly attacked and sieged, but for a long time it remained in the possession of the Turks. For the first time, Russian troops took the Bender fortress in 1770, during the Russian-Turkish war. During the battle, the fortress suffered significant damage. It is noteworthy that during the signing of the peace treaty between Russia and Turkey, the right bank of the Dniester with the city of Bender remained in the possession of the Turks. In 1812, the Bendera Fortress was nevertheless transferred to the Russian Empire, and its reconstruction was carried out.
Today the fortress is the place of deployment of the PMR army.
