Castle :: ARTSAKH HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Castle

Azerbaijan / Northern Artsakh / Shamkhor / Shamkhor / Shamkor

Description

A topographer who visited the castle of Shamkor describes it in the following manner, “...The present-day ruins indicate that the city was, indeed, a large one, less than half a mile wide and about a mile long together with its suburb. You can still see some gold, silver and copper coins, other copper articles, pitchers, vessels as well as iron and clay tools amidst its remnants. Nowadays, however, everything lies in complete dilapidation, with the exception of a semi-ruined fort which is 130 metres long and 70 metres 50 centimetres wide (its walls are 2 metres 45 centimetres thick). It has two gates opening in the south and north as well as thick ramparts and many towers built of burnt brick, undressed pebble and mortar. The stronghold is surrounded by the ruins of the city in the south, north and west, with the stream Shamkor flowing below its fortified walls in the east. Apart from its main ramparts, the castle also had some extra ones built of unburnt brick and mortar: as a continuation of the southern ramparts, they extended along its western part and eventually joined the northern ones.”

Barkhutariants, M. Artsakh. Baku, 1895, pp. 55-56.
Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 518.

1844 y․

The castle used to have four vantage-points “...built of stone and mortar. The first and highest of them, located north of the second one, was destroyed in 1844. The latter was situated at the edge of a plain lying on the left bank of the stream Shamkor. The other two, which have been preserved standing, are placed at the foot of Mount Aghdan.”