Kastro Castle

The castle at Kastro, on the island of Thasos, is a Late-Byzantine ruin of the mid-13th century, raised on a rocky outcrop at the village's southern edge. It was built shortly before 1287, when an imperial chrysobull of Andronikos II Palaiologos first mentions the fortified settlement, then called Neokastro to distinguish it from an older fortification above Kalyvia. The village's original inhabitants arrived after 1204, when the Latin capture of Constantinople and subsequent pirate raids drove coastal communities inland; they first settled near Agios Efstratios, then moved to this stronger position. The enclosure once covered roughly 3,000 square metres within a 215-metre perimeter, though little survives today beyond stretches of rubble masonry wall, the best preserved being 3.2 metres high near the north-west gate. A vaulted cistern, originally the base of a rectangular tower, remains inside, and the ruins of another tower stand by the west wall. The site later served as a cemetery between 1828 and 1940. Three marble inscriptions, now set into the walls of the village church of Agios Athanasios, provide valuable historical detail.

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