The urban development of castles within the historical cities of Iraq (Case study Hit Castle)

Abstract

The study of historical castles has a great impact on the urban and urban development of historical city centers and has a great importance in forming the urban body of these cities. Because of its impact on the social, economic, political, cultural and tourism levels in addition to its physical and spiritual importance to successive generations that link them with the cultural and social heritage. Historic castles suffer from a state of neglect, deterioration, vandalism and transgression that is a result of successive periods as a kind of negative effects of wars that happened in the country in successive periods. The work on studies and researches specialized in developing historical castles is one of the responsibilities of the local and global level. Which contributes to strengthening the role of moral standing of the castles cities community tourist attraction and raise the country’s economy. The choice of the historic castle of Hit to study in this research is due to its historical and urban depth. Which is the main seed in shaping the structure of the city of Hit with time, and what this city is witnessing today from an urban renaissance in Anbar Governorate. From seeing the studies and researches that dealt with the urban development strategies of the city, the research problem crystallized with (lack of architectural, urban and archaeological studies specialized in dealing with the method of urban development of the Citadel and the lack of clarity in determining its development strategy). The hypothesis of the research was formulated as (The urban development strategy of Hit Castle affects the integration of the castle with the surrounding urban fabric and its historical characteristics). Depending on putting theoretical terms on the development strategy by analyzing strategies for similar examples, and by comparing its terms and identifying its advantages and disadvantages, the optimal strategy for urban development is been chosen according to the index that will be extracted from the practical study of Hit Castle.