Karaiskakis - West

A pair of stone towers flanks the southwestern approach to the monastery of Prousos, with a matching counterpart on the road from the east. Both clearly belonged to the monastery, serving a defensive purpose first and foremost, though they likely also housed monks, labourers, or visiting pilgrims. The towers bear the name of Georgios Karaiskakis, the hero of the 1821 Greek Revolution, who repeatedly based himself at the monastery and quartered some of his men in these structures. Yet the towers are older than his association with them. The monastery itself was founded in the 12th century and underwent major renovation in the late 16th, but the precise date of the towers remains uncertain, with the 18th century the most probable guess. Today they survive in good condition, quiet sentinels on a mountain road, their original defensive role long past but their place in revolutionary memory secure.