Bodrum Castle was built by the Knights of Rhodes in honour of St.Peter between 1415-1437. The stones and marbles of the Mausoleum, which is one of the seven wonders of ancient world and destroyed by an earthquake in 14th century, were used for the construction of the castle. There are five main towers, reflecting the architectural styles of the nations by whom they were constructed, called English Tower, French Tower, Spanish Tower, Italien Tower and German Tower. The Knights built the walls facing the sea thin, and fortified the walls facing the land, as they had expected attacks from the land.
Bodrum was taken by the Turks in 1523. After 1895, the castle was used as a prison. It was converted into a museum, in which, especially the findings of underwater archeology, Mycenean, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantium artifacts are displayed in different sections in chronological order since 1960.
In the Gothic chapel in the courtyard, findings from the Bronze Age are exhibited, dating back 3000 - 2000 years, discovered in this region of objects and weapons from the Mycenaen time found by excavation in the necropolis near Bodrum - Ortakent. In the section to the right of the chapel are exhibited in their original position the environs of the Gelidonya Wreck, which had loaded copper ignots, dating back to 1200 B.C. and which was discovered by underwater excavations off-shore the Cape Gelidonya, under direction of Prof.Dr. George Bass in 1960.
In the south of the chapel, adjoining the castle wall a Turkish Bath an old building where the bathing tradition is shown in details.