Agios Georgios

On the uninhabited islet of Agios Georgios in the Gulf of Itea, near Galaxidi, stand the ruins of a small fortification with a tower. Historical sources are silent about it, and it appears on no old maps, which suggests it was never a place of great consequence. The Archaeological Cadastre records traces of habitation and fortification on this islet and its neighbours, Apsifia and Panagia, dating from the late Roman and early Byzantine periods. These were likely temporary refuges for people from the opposite coast during the Gothic invasions of the 3rd century and the Slavic incursions of the 6th and 7th centuries. The refuge seems to have been abandoned around the 7th century, when Slavic tribes, using primitive single-log boats (as at the siege of Thessaloniki in 615), made such islands unsafe. The fortification was probably raised in the 3rd or 4th century and left to decay by the 7th, whether owing to Slavic raiders or later Saracen seaborne attacks. Its precise size and condition remain unclear.