The contribution of the ottomans to the construction of the Vauban-type fortress in Kiliya
The contribution of the ottomans to the construction of the Vauban-type fortress in Kiliya

Summary/Abstract: The bastioned fortress of Kiliya was built in 1795–1797, according to the order of Sultan Selim III by the French engineer François Kauffer on the site of the old stone fortress of Stephen the Great. Some elements of the previous fortress were incorporated into the new fortress such as two towers of the citadel, the observation tower with the Middle Gate, four towers of the outer belt of the wall, the inner defence ditch, etc. The bastioned fortress had a square plan with four corner bastions, three acute angled bastions with an open gorge (Agha Bastion, Sultan Selim Bastion, Pasha Bastion) and a double, irregular bastion with an open gorge (the southern part of the formerly named Unique, Unusual, Incomparable Bastion). Access to the fortress was ensured by two main gates incorporated in separate constructions: the Hotin Gate (the northern gate) and the Constantinople Gate (the southern gate), as well as by two gates in the courtyards: the eastern gate and the Water Gate. Outside the southern curtain was the Gate with Portcullis or the Gate with “fingers”. The Pasha Bastion was supplemented with the Stone Gate, and the Agha Bastion with the Agha Gate. The fortress included a number of component elements borrowed from the fortification methods of the famous French engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban considered the “father of the gradual attack”. Kiliya bastioned fortress functioned until 1856.

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