Fisini

The “Towers of Fisini” are the scant remains of a fortification of uncertain date on the south-eastern coast of Lemnos, roughly 1.5 kilometres north of the village of Fisini. The site, on a hilltop plateau some 300 metres from the sea, preserves only two towers in any recognisable form, hence the name. The enclosure is rectangular, about 50 by 55 metres, with its trace visible along most of the perimeter, though only at low height and in piles of stones. The eastern tower, the best-preserved element, measures 8.70 by 10.60 metres and may have originally stood over 10 metres tall; its masonry, with mortar and small stone fillings, suggests an early date, probably Late Antiquity or the Early Byzantine period, with later Byzantine repairs. The western tower is a formless ruin, though the Italian archaeologist Doro Levi noted foundations of a large square building, possibly ancient, beside it. The fortification’s history is obscure: it may be the medieval castle of Skala shown on old maps, but Kastrologos doubts this, favouring a neighbouring settlement instead. It was abandoned early under Ottoman rule and visited by Alexander Conze in the mid-nineteenth century in much its present state.