Koulas of Chios

The Koulas of Chios is a peculiar tower standing near the northeastern wall of the island's main castle, yet it feels curiously detached from its surroundings, with no obvious functional link to the larger fortification. Its origins are a matter of educated guesswork. The Genoese raised the castle itself towards the end of the 14th century, likely on the footprint of an older Byzantine fortress, and the prevailing theory holds that the Koulas is the sole surviving fragment of that earlier structure. Alternative suggestions place it as one of the first watchtowers on Chios, or date it to the Ottoman capture of 1566. The tower's shape adds to the mystery: its ground plan is not circular but horseshoe-like, with the southeastern side flattened. Construction clearly reused spolia from older buildings, though the source of those materials remains unrecorded.