It is known as the Lankaran fortress. Located in the center, the three-storey fortress is 20 m high, while its walls are more than 1 m thick. It was built of red bricks and a mixture of eggs and limestone. Due its strategic location, Lankaran has always been the focus of attention for Iran and Russia. In 1725, Nadir Khan Afshar ordered to have a 30-hectare area walled and turned Lankaran into a citadel. In 1747, with the aim of protecting the town, he started the construction of two similar fortresses. Despite his death, the construction of the fortresses was completed in 1786. On 31 December 1812, Czarist Russian troops called in by Khan Mir Mustafa destroyed the fortress, killing 17,000 civilians and 4,000 soldiers. After completing the occupation of the south in 1869, the Russians knocked down the walls of the town but left the fortresses intact. The circular fortress, which had served defense purposes, was turned into a dungeon and then functioned as a prison until 1970. One of its prisoners before the socialist revolution was J. Stalin, known here as Koba. The prison was shut down in the 1970s. The local population still calls the area Gala (fortress). In fact, it was the conquest of the Lankaran fortress that eventually led to the division of Azerbaijan between Russia and Iran.