Apano Kastro of Naxos

Apano Kastro, the “Upper Castle” of Naxos, crowns a 420-metre hill above the Tragaia valley, a stronghold since antiquity but taking its surviving form in the late 14th century. The Venetians rebuilt it after 1390, when Sultan Bayezid’s new fleet of 60 ships made Ottoman piracy a real threat in the Aegean. Earlier attributions to Duke Markos Sanoudos around 1207 are now doubted, though repairs in 1500 added a southern wall with two circular bastions, notable for their early cannon openings. The castle covers 14,000 square metres, with an outer enclosure and a small inner citadel of under 3,000 square metres, its double walls nine metres high. It held out against Barbarossa in 1537, fell only to the French corsair Hugues de Crevelliers in 1678, and sheltered rebels in 1620. Ruins include a basilica, a supposed ducal palace, cisterns coated with kurasan, and a three-metre Paleolithic menhir at the entrance. A military refuge rather than a settlement, it survives in ruins, with two ancient cemeteries nearby.

Heritage data from Wikidata, compiled and verified in the Atika atlas.