Bender Fortress
Sixteenth-century Ottoman bastion fortress on the Dniester, restored and holding two museums.
A Moldavian earth and timber fortification guarded the Dniester crossing at Tighina in the time of Stephen the Great. After Suleiman the Magnificent took the place in 1538 the Ottomans rebuilt it in stone, work that was finished about 1541 and is traditionally credited to the imperial architect Sinan. The result was a large bastion fortress ringed by a deep dry ditch, with a citadel at its heart, and it repelled repeated attempts to retake it, including assaults by John the Brave in 1574 and Michael the Brave in 1595 and 1600.
The fortress passed to Russia in the Russo-Turkish wars and served as a garrison and arsenal well into the twentieth century, which kept it closed to the public. Restoration between 2008 and 2012 opened the citadel, the curtain walls and the ditch to visitors. The site is run as a historical and military memorial complex, with a museum on the fortress's own history and a second display of medieval European instruments of punishment, together with reconstructions and an exhibition of artillery in the grounds.
Highlights
- Ottoman bastion plan with a citadel and deep dry ditch
- Rebuilt in stone by about 1541, attributed to Mimar Sinan
- Opened to visitors after restoration completed in 2012
- Museum of the fortress and displays in the citadel towers
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
