Kallirachi

Above the village of Kallirachi on Thassos, a pointed rocky hill called Kakirachi or Metamorfosi carries the ruins of a late Byzantine fortified settlement. Likely founded in the 14th century, it remained inhabited until the mid-18th century, and appears in Ottoman tax records alongside Lemenas and Kastro as one of the island’s three castles. The summit, naturally steep on all sides, formed the citadel: a perimeter of about 150 metres enclosing some 700 square metres, though little of its wall now stands. A rectangular tower, seven metres wide and up to four high, once guarded the entrance, its stone-and-mortar masonry still visible. Nearby, the renovated Church of the Transfiguration retains two built-in inscriptions beside its door. At the eastern high point, the western wall of the castle cistern survives to a metre, with traces of its hydraulic mortar lining. The abandoned settlement’s foundations scatter across the northern slope, reached by a stone-paved path, including small dry-stone rooms and a single chapel.