Gomati

The tower at Gomati is a late Byzantine ruin, probably raised in the fourteenth century, and one of the many defensive structures that once guarded the monastic estates of Chalkidiki. It stood at the old village of Gomati, four kilometres west of the present settlement, which was moved after the 1932 earthquake destroyed its predecessor. The tower, known locally as the tower of Orphanos, is now the only visible remnant of that older village, sitting on the slopes of Païvouni hill. The land belonged to a dependency of the Athonite community called Kamena, documented since the tenth century, and after 1400 it passed to the Megisti Lavra monastery. The tower was built around that time, like most of the peninsula's seventy-odd such structures. It measured roughly seven by six metres, with three storeys reaching about ten metres; today only seven metres of wall survive, the west face retaining a 1.5 metre entrance opening, originally accessed by a folding ladder well above ground level.