Shusha fortress
fortress in Azerbaijan
The Shusha fortress (Azerbaijani: Şuşa qalası, Persian: قلعه شوش) or Shushi fortress (Armenian: Շուշիի բերդ) is a fortress surrounding the historical centre of Shusha. The newly conquered castle town was called "Panahabad fortress" named after Panah Ali Khan who together with Melik Shahnazar was the founder of the fort. In later years, the city was just called "Fortress". A settlement at Shusha is first recorded in a 15th-century illustrated Armenian gospel which mentions the "Shushu village".
The area where the Shusha fortress was built is a mountainous plateau in the form of amphitheater from the west with numerous hills and rifts. The highest area of plateau is 1600 metres and the lowest area is 1300 metres above sea level. At present, the territory of Shusha city consists of plateau with a hill located lengthwise in its center. The architecture of Shusha fortress represents basic principles of architecture of feudal period in terms of both the choice of location, structural planning and the artistic appearance of the fort.
Shusha fortress had three main gates: Ganja Gate, Iravan Gate and Aghoghlan Gate. The names of all these gates are often mentioned in historical sources, as well as in all the drawn plans of 19th-century Shusha.
“Shusha fortress” enters the record as fortress in Azerbaijan. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Shusha, fortress and Azerbaijan can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Shusha fortress” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Shusha, fortress and Azerbaijan provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2500237. Authority coordinates are 39.766, 46.751. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1600 and 1300.
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This entry incorporates text from “Shusha fortress” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.