Heptapyrgion

The Eptapyrgion, better known by its Ottoman name Yedi Kule, stands at the north-eastern corner of Thessaloniki’s acropolis. Its Greek name means “seven towers”, though the fortress actually has ten. The city’s visible walls date from the late Roman period, when Theodosius I (r. 379-395) refortified Thessaloniki, and the five northern towers with their connecting curtain wall probably belong to this era. The southern five towers and wall were likely added in the 12th century, creating a fortified redoubt inside the citadel, and the whole complex was maintained and rebuilt under the Palaiologan dynasty in the 14th century. The Turks took the castle with the rest of the city in 1430. In the 1890s it became a prison, a conversion that cleared every earlier building from the interior, leaving no trace of them. The fortifications themselves, however, survived with only modest alterations, and remain in relatively good condition.

Heritage data from Wikidata, compiled and verified in the Atika atlas.