Second Period of Ottoman Rule
The End of Venetian Rule and the Beginning of Ottoman Rule
With the end of the First Veneto-Turkish war (1479) and of Venetian rule on Lemnos, the castle became the centre of military command and defence during the long period of Ottoman rule on the island, which lasted until 1912.
When the Venetians left, the Ottomans installed in the kastro guards, together with their families. The officers and commanders also lived in the castle, while the senior commander resided in the keep. Thus, a settlement was created inside the fortress, the existence of which is obvious from the remains of the mosque, of houses and of an Ottoman cemetery. When the traveller Frieseman visited Myrina, between 1774 and 1788, he noted the existence of lodgings in the castle site, near the sea (north side). Most of the surviving buildings intra muros are from this period, although the use of some of them is unclear. Over time, the castle had been united with the city, as a result of which from 1739 until 1955 Myrina is referred to by the name Kastro.
Even though the castle had been carefully repaired and reinforced by the Venetians in 1477, it is very likely that the Ottomans, when establishing their presence in it, had made interventions and alterations, as well as additions to the existing fortifications. After all, occupation of the castle of Myrina was considered of the utmost importance for maintaining domination of the island. The Turk historian Haji Khalifeh narrates that in 1479 when Tenedos was fortified by Mohamed II, Lemnos too was fortified. The Ottomans repaired and strengthened the fortification walls, added buttresses to the central gate and cannon ports on the seaward side. Indeed, when the Turkish seafarer, admiral, geographer and traveller Piri Reis came to the castle in 1521, he stated that he found it in good condition. Later, however, in 1548, the traveller Pierre Belon wrote that the castle was in a bad state. His remark indicates that it had been neglected and left to the ravages of time, perhaps because there was no need of the upkeep of fortresses, as there were no wars. It is true that from 1479, when the island passed to Ottoman sovereignty and the First Veneto-Turkish War ended, until the time of Pierre Belon’s visit in 1546, there were no military operations against the island. The diminished significance of the castle was recounted later by the Reinhold von Lubenaou, when he came to Lemnos in 1588 together with the newly-appointed Ottoman Vice-Admiral Hasan Pasha, who went to inspect the fortifications. Reinhold von Lubenaou states that the castle was of no value and that the only task of the elderly janissaries who remained stationed there was to make sure the Christians did not rebel.
The Capture by the Venetians
The long Ottoman presence in the kastro was disrupted twice, for a short time, first by the Venetians’ attacks and capture of the castle and second by the subsequent siege by the Russians.
In 1656, the Venetians, taking advantage of their victory over the Ottoman Navy in a sea battle fought near the Dardanelles (June 1656), captured Lemnos and under the leadership of Admiral Marquis A. Borri and Commander Colonello Bertone laid siege to the castle of Myrina. They captured the area to the south of the castle and the windmills, and installed their artillery on a hill to the east. The castle was the target of relentless fire from bronze cannon, which caused serious cracks in the fortification walls and destroyed houses inside the stronghold, forcing the Ottomans to surrender after holding out for a few days. When the Venetians took over, they strengthened vulnerable points of the fortification, while other points were fortified for the first time, because they knew that the Turks would do everything they could to drive them out. The Ottomans were determined to keep control of Lemnos, not only because of its outstanding location, but also because of its products, especially the renowned Lemnian Earth (Lemnia sphragis) which they wanted to exploit commercially (the Venetians did not limit themselves to reinforcing the fortifications but, unfortunately, plundered the island, uprooted trees and vines, and stole from the inhabitants a large number of cattle).
In the following year, the former besiegers became the besieged, when the Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha appeared with strong forces in front of the castle and beganto besiege it from both land and sea. Indeed, he was planning to blow up part of the castle in order to open a tunnel into it, but the massive and robust rocks upon which the fortress was founded forced him to abandon the project. After 63 days, in Νovember 1657, due to lack of supplies, munitions and water, the Venetians sued for peace, handed over the fortress and left the island forever. The Turks treated the beleaguered badly, putting many to death, among them numerous Greeks, and taking 500 men captive to row their galleys. So, in 1695 the city of Myrina was left with 1,500 women and only 400 men.
It is not known whether the Ottomans made repairs to the castle when they took it back into their hands, but it is reasonable to assume that these would have been necessary after the destructions caused by the siege. When the Dutch geographer Olfred Dapper came to Myrina, around 1688 he wrote that the fortress appeared to be strong, due to the difficulty of access to it rather than to its robust fortification. However, it seems that by the early eighteenth century and specifically in the years 1713-1714,Hadji Ibrahim Pasha had to carry out considerable works to strengthen the fortifications.
The Siege by the Russians
In 1770, during the Russo-Turkish War, the Russian admiral Alexey Orlov came to Lemnos. With his fleet he laid siege to the castle from the sea, while he recruited numerous local Greeks to besiege the castle from land. After a relentless three-month siege and just as the beleaguered were about to surrender, the arrival of Hasan Cezayirli (Gazi Hasan Pasha) with 3,000 soldiers, forced the Russians to withdraw. The Russian retreat was followed by cruel reprisals of the Turks. Houses were looted and many Greeks were slain. Metropolitan Joachim, the school-teacher and 300 primates and priests were hanged, the church of the Holy Trinity was destroyed, while many others fled the island never to return.
The Russian cannon fire caused considerable cracks in the castle walls. In 1777-1780, Hasan Cezayirli Pasha repaired the fortification walls and particularly the parts flanking the central gate, which had suffered the most damage. This was the last known repair carried out in the castle, until the end of Ottoman rule on the island and its liberation in October 1912. The German traveller Hendrik Frieseman, who visited Myrina in the late eighteenth century (between 1780 and 1788), records that the kastro was in very good condition, because the Capudan Pasha (i.e. the Admiral-in-Chief) Hasan Cezayirli made considerable efforts for its maintenance. He had repaired the cracks caused by the Russians and strengthened the most vulnerable points, and had recently renewed supplies. Frieseman also mentions that inside the castle there were 150 cannon and some artillery, and that he observed a gun emplacement on each side of the citadel.
The British traveller Henry Tozer, when he visited the fortress a century later, in 1889, stresses that it is mighty for a Medieval construction, but that it would not be able to withstand the artillery weapons of his time.
The Ottomans’ centuries-long presence in the kastro, with the changes and additions, as well as the repairs that can reasonably be assumed essential after the sieges, not to mention the deterioration due to time, undoubtedly transformed the structural elements and changed the aspect of the fortification walls that had been buily in the period of the Byzantines and of the Venetians.
