Adrianou - Plaka

At Adrianou Street in Plaka, a single, rather poor tower survives as a relic of Byzantine Athens. It is the remnant of a fortification traditionally attributed to the emperor Justinian, though the site’s history runs deeper. Ancient Athens’ walls were levelled by Sulla in 86 BC and left unrepaired for three centuries. A new circuit built under Valerian in the mid-third century AD failed to deter the Herules, who sacked the city in 267 AD. The subsequent reconstruction, the Post-Herulian Wall, deliberately excluded much of the ruined ancient town. Around three centuries later, Justinian’s repairs added fresh towers, among them this one, which guarded a gate of the same period. Today only the tower’s base survives, its masonry telling a story of repeated destruction and pragmatic rebuilding, a modest but tangible link to the city’s late-antique defences.