Fodor's Expert Review Citadel

Trabzon's Byzantine-era citadel was built on part of a hill formed by two ravines, and while not much is left of the building's former glory, the soaring outside walls and massive columns are still impressive (restored after the Ottoman conquest in 1461) and a testament to the fact that no army ever took Trabzon by force, though many tried. The only remaining part of the interior is the 10th-century church of Panagia Chrysokephalos (the Virgin of the Golden Head), which was the city's cathedral and where many of its rulers were married, crowned, and buried. The Ottomans converted it into a mosque, the Ortahisar Camii, in the 15th century.