Kars

Kars stands on a high plateau where roads from Anatolia meet those leading into Armenia and the Caucasus. Its citadel overlooks the river and town, while the domed Church of the Holy Apostles recalls the period when Kars was a capital of the Armenian Bagratid kings. The city's position made it a stronghold of exceptional importance to the powers competing for the eastern frontier.

Timur's invasion devastated Kars in the late fourteenth century. In 1579 the Ottoman commander Lala Mustafa Pasha rebuilt the fortress and the damaged town, providing mosques, a bridge and a governor's palace. The new provincial centre guarded approaches to Iran and Georgia, but the wars between the Ottomans and Safavids brought fresh destruction; Shah Abbas's campaign damaged the city in 1604. Kars continued to face armies from beyond the frontier. Nader Shah besieged it in the eighteenth century, and Russian troops stormed the fortress in 1828 during the Russo-Ottoman War. The peace settlement returned Kars to Ottoman rule the following year. The stronghold remained a symbol of the contested highlands and the repeated struggles to control the roads through them.