Kastraki

Kastraki is a ruined ancient tower on a spur roughly 320 metres above the hamlet of Voutsani, itself about 800 metres from Rina, the easternmost village in the Vathys valley. The site commands wide views, including the ancient Pyrgos Filakes, Mount Profitis Ilias on Kalymnos, and the Turkish coast; when the tower stood at full height, Kastellas and Viglia on Kalymnos were also visible. The archaeologist Michail I. Koutellas classed it among the valley’s Early Hellenistic defensive works (late 4th to early 3rd century BC), built as a rectangular tower with large stone blocks so guards could watch the whole valley and the open sea, signalling danger by fire to send people to the Empolas Fortress. Byzantine ceramic sherds and the area’s dense Byzantine population suggest continued use then. The tower itself, measuring 7.8 by 6.95 metres with an enceinte, survives only in ruins; later it served as a farmhouse before being largely dismantled for building stone.