Tripoli Castle

Tripoli, Lebanon, Lebanon

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Tripoli Castle, officially the Citadel of Tripoli and also known as the Castle of Saint Gilles or Qalʿat Sinjīl, is a massive medieval fortress perched on a hill in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, overlooking the historic old town and the modern city toward the Mediterranean coast.

Built originally between 1102 and 1109 by the Crusader leader Raymond de Saint-Gilles during the siege that led to the capture of Tripoli, the earliest castle was called the Castle of Mount Pilgrim, but after the Mamluks destroyed nearby quarters in 1289 and the Crusader fort was gutted and abandoned.

A new Mamluk citadel was constructed on the same site in 1308 using its ruins and local materials such as Roman column shafts, and the structure was later significantly rebuilt and expanded under the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the early 16th century and extensively restored again in the early 19th century by governor Mustafa Agha Barbar.