Ulukale's settlement history begins in the Iron Age and reaches the present day without any periodic interruption. This makes the village one of the oldest and most continuously inhabited settlements in the region.
The village's name has a documented past of nearly 2,800 years. The forms traced in historical records:
The area lies within the historical region of Sophene (Dzopk) and is identified with Xozan, mentioned as a provincial or principality centre in the 9th–11th centuries. The Armenian historian Asoghik, in his account of Saint Aristakes (d. 333), relates that "a great church was built in the town of Xozan in the land of Dzopk"; Matthew of Edessa also mentions Xozan. This unbroken chain of names is the most tangible witness to the village's many-layered past spanning nearly three thousand years.
Source: Sevan Nişanyan — Nişanyan Yeradları (Index Anatolicus) / The Armenian Geography of Turkey.
Archaeological surface surveys show that settlement at Ulukale dates back to the Iron Age. The name of the place was recorded around 800 BC as "Xuzanu" — meaning the village's name has a documented past of nearly 2,800 years. The valley's fertile soil and the protection of four mountains laid the foundation of this ancient settlement.
The Hellenistic and Roman periods are represented by a rock-cut tomb still visible in the village today. Some architectural remains from this era document Ulukale's roots reaching back before the Middle Ages.
In this period the area is a town known in Armenian sources as Xozan. Historians such as Asoghik and Matthew of Edessa mention Xozan and a great church built there. Although no monumental ruin from this time survives, these records show the settlement was continuous and significant throughout the Middle Ages. The historical fabric visible today would take shape in the following era.
In the 16th century Ulukale rose to the position of a nahiye (sub-district) centre within the Çemişgezek Sanjak. The historical fabric for which the village is known today — tomb, fountain, bath, mosque, church and adobe vernacular architecture — chiefly came to life in this period. This layered heritage, bearing the trace of different faiths and cultures side by side, is Ulukale's most distinctive feature.
A lively village life continued with mansions, a mill and mulberry orchards. In the second half of the 20th century, however, migration gradually quietened the village. Behind it remained adobe houses with earthen roofs, wooden windows, and a school that once echoed with children's voices.
Largely abandoned today, the old village is a destination for photographers and nature lovers. Those who left return from time to time, searching for the past among their old houses. Livelihood still depends largely on mulberry growing.
The administrative, demographic and economic structure of the village according to an academic study based on Ottoman archival records (cadastral and population registers).
The name Ulukale appears in Ottoman documents as "Ulu Kal'a"; it is formed from the adjective ulu ("great, lofty") and the Arabic word kal'a (fortress). The village takes its name from the fortress built at the summit of the steep hill it leans against — the ruin of this structure, more of a watchtower in character, still stands today. In the records of 1518 and 1523 the village is also referred to as "Rabat" (ribat); this points to the presence of an inn (han) here and to a tamga (stamp) tax levied on passing merchants. After 1541, having lost its ribat status, the village came to be known simply as Ulukale.
Çemişgezek, together with Ulukale, came under Ottoman rule in 1515. Ulukale was the centre of the Ulukale nahiye within the Çemişgezek Sanjak. At the start of the 16th century (1518–1523) the nahiye consisted of 10 villages; one was Kurdish and the rest were non-Muslim villages — further evidence of the village's many-layered cultural fabric. The settlement of a Muslim Turkish population took place between 1524 and 1540.
Ulukale was a typical Anatolian settlement in which agriculture and animal husbandry were prominent. The main taxed crops were wheat, barley, millet, grapes and cotton; alongside cattle and small livestock, beekeeping was also practised. What set the village apart from its neighbours were the buildings typical of a town: a dye-house (boyahane) where textiles were dyed, a two-stone grain mill, and an inn (han). The mulberry that is the village's chief livelihood today was not yet widespread in the Ottoman period; the mulberry came to dominate the economy in the Republican era. The vineyards that once existed in the village disappeared over time.
One of the village's most important buildings is the Ferruhşad Bey Tomb, completed in Dhul-Hijjah 957 (December 1550 / January 1551). Octagonal in plan, faced with cut stone and articulated with three bands of red stone, the structure was recently restored. Ferruhşad Bey, who is buried here, was the son of Pir Hüseyin Bey, the first Ottoman governor (sanjak-bey) of Çemişgezek, and himself the sanjak-bey of Mazgirt. The Arabic inscription above its door was removed and stolen in 1997, then recovered in 2017 and handed over to the Tunceli Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism.
Source: Enver Çakar, "Ulukale Village During the Ottoman Period," Fırat University Journal of Harput Studies, Vol. V, No. 2 (2018), Elazığ. (PDF) Based on Ottoman cadastral and population registers.
The histories you heard from grandparents, old deeds, any document about the village's past — all of it enriches this timeline.
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