Agjakala

Engüzek Castle, in the historical Tao region, is a medieval castle built by Georgians located in the village of Dikyar, district of Uzundere, Erzurum Province, Turkey. Because of the former name of the village Dikyar, it is called Üngüzek Castle or Engüzek Castle. In medieval written sources it is referred to as Ağca Kala. It is also known as Engüzekkapı Castle.

History

The Tao region where Engüzek Castle is situated was one of the areas that formed Georgia in the Middle Ages. Indeed, the Ottomans seized the village where the castle stands from the Georgians in the middle of the 16th century. According to an Ottoman detailed register dated 1574, Engüzek village was a fairly large settlement consisting of 142 households. In a Georgian work describing the events of the 16th–17th centuries, the castle’s name appears as "Ağca Kala" (აღჯა ყალა). As in the example of Ağca Kala in the district of Çıldır, this name may have been translated from the Georgian Tetrtsihe (თეთრციხე) with the same meaning into Turkish. Engüzek Castle, located in the southeast of the village, was the most important castle in the Tortum valley in the Middle Ages. It controlled the Tortum River valley and the old road coming from the banks of the Çoruh River along the Çorgenisi valley. This road entered the control of Oşnaki Castle on the Çoruh bank. The exact construction date of Engüzek Castle is unknown. It has also been suggested that it was built by Turkish beys in the Middle Ages. However, the church inside the castle shows that this structure was not built by Muslims.

Architecture

Engüzek Castle is situated in the Dere neighborhood of Dikyar village, at an altitude of 1,180 meters above sea level, on a difficult-to-access rock. The structure, built with roughly worked medium-sized stones using lime mortar, measures 78 × 38 meters. It has largely survived to the present day. The remaining walls reach a height of 30 meters. The castle has four towers. Inside the castle there are a church, cisterns, storages, parts of a tunnel reaching the stream, and various building remains. At the foot of the castle, on the bank of a small stream, there are the remains of a bath built during the Ottoman period.