Ephemera

Bulwer’s Castle

Sir Henry Bulwer was a the British Ambassador in Constantinople and during his tenure (1858-1865) he built this large folly on the un-inhabited island in the Sea of Marmara, Yassı Ada (Greek: Plati) that stood as a ruin till the 1950s, before military authorities demolished it and in its place rose a prison, notorious for being the place of trial of the former prime-minister Adnan Menderes and two of his deputies in 1961 who were hanged. Views taken by tourists in the 1930s.

The second folly in the centre of the island again in the form of a medieval castle was probably built on the remains of the former Byzantine monastery whose masonry was possibly re-used. Seen below.

In the early 1960s the island was covered in naval buildings housing as political prisoners over 500 deputies and a military tribunal court to convinct them.

The remains of the neglected buildings before 2015, the front portion of the castle still stands, badly restored with cement and missing one of the main towers, the area used for a time as an ‘illegal’ beach by Russian day-trippers. In 2015 island was opened by the Culture and Tourim ministry to development that include the current (2016) construction of 21 builings including a 5-star hotel, conference centre with a capacity of 500 people, museum (7,700 sqm.), exhibition space, restaurants and mosque resulting in the removal of natural vegetation cover and replaced by ordered gardens in a building crowded space, a proposed dual development (Democracy and Freedom islands) with a neighbouring small island (Sivriada) that would suffer a similar fate. Pre-construction clearance and land-levelling started in May 2015 but was stopped by court order in 2019. It appears from the plans for the shore-side Bulwer’s castle remains will be preserved. All other historic traces including the central Bulwer’s castle and Byzantine monastery etc. remains have been erased.

The partially destroyed underground dungeon, probably from Byzantine times, before their total destruction, photographed summer 2015.

What appear to be the remains of the upper castle in the background, photographed July 2015.

Situation May 2016.

Situation November 2017.

Situation July 2018.

Situation December 2018.

Situation April 2021 with the opening of the 125 room luxury hotel ‘Katre Island Hotel’ in the centre, run by a company (ETS Tur) owned by the current Culture and Tourism Minister (Mehmet Nuri Ersoy). This has been a commercial failure and in 2023 the Culture and Tourism Ministry obtained the hotel for 20 days before renting it out for a 20 years contract to Birun Ada Otelcilik (part of Albayrak group). The island is seldom visited by tourists, mostly state connected officially arranged tours and all infrastructure (estimated total cost 110 million US$) underwritten by the state Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, has been highly under-utilised because of its remote location.