Drassa

On a low hill near the village of Drassa in central Greece, the scant remains of a Byzantine fortification mark a site of refuge and control from around the year 600. Only tumbled stone and the faint outline of a circuit wall survive, enough to suggest a modest defensive post rather than a grand citadel. In that turbulent century, as Slavic incursions and imperial contraction reshaped the Greek world, strongholds like this one served local communities as places of shelter and watchfulness. Standing among the ruins, you sense a frontier world where security was fragile and every hilltop mattered.