Fournoi

On a low hill overlooking the fields between the village of Fournoi in Argolis and the sea, some two kilometres away, stand the scant remains of a dry-stone fortification. Its history is entirely unknown: it does not appear to be ancient, and was perhaps raised in the Middle Ages, at some unspecified date, to shelter the valley's population from pirate raids, the coast here being vulnerable to attack. The hill is not high, but its upper part is awkward to reach, with a cliff on the south and a very steep slope on the north. Today the castle is in poor condition, with only low ruins surviving on the northern side; a visitor in the late 1980s also noted wall traces to the east and west. The walls are built of massive, semi-finished stones mixed with smaller ones, suggesting a rough refuge rather than a proper military fortress, and probably not Frankish work. Building material may have come from an older settlement on the hill. Later terracing on the southern slope, made with stone from the castle, likely hastened its destruction. An ancient tower also survives near the sea to the west.