Goranoi

South of the village of Goranoi in Laconia, a low but steep and overgrown hill carries the rather poor ruins of a tower. Its position was chosen with care, commanding the narrow mountain passage to the south, though the structure itself now survives only as a fragment. The dating is uncertain. It may belong to the late Byzantine period, perhaps the 14th or 15th century, but the evidence is thin, and an 18th century origin cannot be ruled out. That later period saw the region become a frontier between Ottoman territory and the Mani, and it is known that Muslim Albanians, hired by the Ottomans and settled locally, raised some 46 towers across the area. This one could easily have been among them. Without firmer proof, the tower at Goranoi remains a quiet puzzle, a single stone sentinel whose builders and exact age are left to speculation.