Ayasurluk Castle
It is known that Ayasuluk Hill was called Apasas during the Arzawa-Mira Kingdom Period, and later Ephesos. It is known that when the people of Ephesus moved to Ayasuluk after the 7th century AD, the Basilica of St. Jean replaced the old Episcopal Church in Ephesus. Ayasuluk continued to be an important city and pilgrimage center during the Byzantine Period, and was captured by the Turks in 1304. The city, which was named 'Ayasuluk' after this, became the capital of the Aydınoğulları Principality for a period after 1350. It is known that it was one of the port cities of Western Anatolia during the Early Ottoman Period. Ayasuluk/Selçuk Castle The inner castle walls built on the highest point of Ayasuluk Hill date back to the Seljuk-Ottoman Period. Inside the castle, there are five cisterns near the gates, a single-domed mosque with a partially intact minaret (Kale Mosque) to the south of the central section, and above, to the west, there is the Bey's Mansion and bathhouse from the Turkish Period, and another cistern. The Basilica of St. Jean on the southern part of Ayasuluk Hill was first built as a simple tomb monument in the name of St. Jean, the young apostle of Jesus and the writer of the Gospel, and a basilica with a wooden roof was built on top of it in the 5th century AD. In the earthquakes at the beginning of the 6th century AD, the basilica became unusable and was replaced by a new basilica with a cross plan, three naves, and six domes by Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora (527-565 AD). Since 2020, the Ayasuluk Hill and St. Jean Monument Excavation and Repair Works have been carried out by Dr. Lecturer Sinan Mimaroğlu from the Department of Art History of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Hatay Mustafa Kemal University.
