The castle was constructed in 1659 together with Kumkale located on the Asian side, to defend the entrance of the Dardanelles Strait. The construction of Sedd el Bahr was initiated as the Kilitbahir and Kale-i Sultaniye castles were insufficient to defend the strait when the lengthy war with the Venetians for the island of Crete resumed. For this purpose, the Sedd el Bahr and the Kumkale (located on the opposite shore) were constructed as a first line of defense to withstand Venetian assaults on the strait. The castle was built by Hatice Turhan Sultan, the mother of Mehmed IV. Information relating to the construction stage of the Sedd el Bahr may be found in the official foundation charter of Turhan Sultan.

No definitive information can be found in the existing records as to the architecture of the Sedd el Bahr Castle. Evliya Çelebi mentioned the name of Ankebud Ahmed Pasha who was in charge of the execution of proceedings, but only expressed the title of the architecture. Naima, on the other hand, discussed the architects of the palace sent from Istanbul, however made no mention of their names. Considering the fact that Mustafa Aga was the chief architect in the palace during the construction of the castles by Turhan Sultan, one may infer that the architect is Mustafa Aga.

The castle joined the defense with 12 cannons. It was bombarded by the Allies on November 3, 1914, resulting in the martyrization of the first Turkish soldiers. The Allied warships retargeted the castle on February 19 and 25, 1915 to destroy the line of defense at the entrance to the strait. Sedd el Bahr Castle was rendered inoperational due to these assaults. It was captured on April 26-27, 1915 by British and French forces.