Aspropyrgos

The ruins of Aspropyrgos are not much to look at now, but they gave their name to an entire district. A Frankish tower, built in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, once stood here, and its pale foundations still lie beside the National Road to Corinth, directly beneath the bridge at the Aspropyrgos junction. The surviving stones are large blocks of white marble and limestone, scavenged from ancient tombs in the vicinity, which explains the tower's striking pallor. It was this whiteness that earned it the name "Aspropyrgos", meaning white tower, and the surrounding town has kept that title ever since. Today the structure is reduced to little more than a scattered base, a ghost of a defensive post that once watched over the old route. Its condition is ruinous, yet the very name endures as a quiet reminder of the Frankish presence in Attica.