Kozan: Sis Fortress Sissu; Sision Unattributed Late Byzantine Fortifications Fortress Ruins capital cities Kozan (formerly Armenian: Sis) is capital town of Kozan district in Adana Province, Turkey. In the Middle Ages Sis was the religious centre of Christian Armenians, at least until Gregory the Illuminator the first Catholicos of Armenia(patriarch) transferred his see to Vagarshabad (Echmiadzin) in 302. In 704, Sis was besieged by the Arabs, but relieved by the Byzantines. The Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil took it and refortified it, but it soon returned to Byzantine hands. It was rebuilt in 1186 by Leo II, king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, one of the Rupenide dynasty who made the city the capital of the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia (from 1186 till 1375). During the Crusade the catholicate returned to Sis in 1294, and remained there 150 years. Today ruins of churches, convents, castles and palaces may be seen on all sides. The lofty castle and the monastery and church built by Leo II, and containing the coronation chair of the kings of Lesser Armenia, were still noteworthy in the early 20th century. Images Digital Tiff; Jpeg2000 A-4040 Parsegian, V.L.. Armenian Architecture (Zug, Switzerland; IDC, 1980) Armenian Kozan, Adana Province, Akdeniz kıyısı Region, Turkey, 1226 CE Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY; Armenian Educational Council
Kozan: Sis Fortress
Sissu; Sision
Unattributed
Late Byzantine
Fortifications
Fortress
Ruins
capital cities
Kozan (formerly Armenian: Sis) is capital town of Kozan district in Adana Province, Turkey. In the Middle Ages Sis was the religious centre of Christian Armenians, at least until Gregory the Illuminator the first Catholicos of Armenia(patriarch) transferred his see to Vagarshabad (Echmiadzin) in 302. In 704, Sis was besieged by the Arabs, but relieved by the Byzantines. The Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil took it and refortified it, but it soon returned to Byzantine hands. It was rebuilt in 1186 by Leo II, king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, one of the Rupenide dynasty who made the city the capital of the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia (from 1186 till 1375). During the Crusade the catholicate returned to Sis in 1294, and remained there 150 years. Today ruins of churches, convents, castles and palaces may be seen on all sides. The lofty castle and the monastery and church built by Leo II, and containing the coronation chair of the kings of Lesser Armenia, were still noteworthy in the early 20th century.
Images
Digital
Tiff; Jpeg2000
A-4040
Parsegian, V.L.. Armenian Architecture (Zug, Switzerland; IDC, 1980)
Armenian
Kozan, Adana Province, Akdeniz kıyısı Region, Turkey,
1226 CE
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY; Armenian Educational Council