Agios Ioannis

On the hill of Agios Ioannis, northwest of the old settlement of Kani, now Kallithea, near Kleitoria in the Kalavryta municipality of Achaea, stand the ruins of a tower about which history is silent. Nothing is recorded of its builders or its purpose. The mortar in its masonry rules out an ancient origin, while its style fits neither Frankish nor Ottoman work, leaving a Byzantine attribution as the most reasonable guess, though no firmer date can be offered. The tower is nearly square, measuring 5.50 by 5.10 metres, with walls 1.30 metres thick, except on the western side where they reach 1.40 metres. Only the southwest corner survives, and that to a maximum height of a single metre. Around it lie the low foundations of two rectangular buildings, evidently contemporary with the tower. All is in ruins, a modest but intriguing remnant of an unidentified medieval past.