Lavrina

Standing six hundred metres northeast of the village of Dafnonas on Chios, the tower at Lavrina is a rather poor medieval tower house, one of several similar structures scattered across this fertile, well-watered district. Its name comes from the nearby chapel of Panagia of Lavrina, itself rebuilt in 1994 after the great earthquake of 1881 destroyed it. The word "lavrina" derives from "lavra", a Byzantine term for a large monastic complex, and the church evidently belonged to Nea Moni of Chios.

The tower's own history is obscure. It was likely a landowner's mansion rather than a monastic outpost, and probably dates from the Genoese occupation of the island (1346 to 1566), so the 15th century seems the safest guess. The area had been Nea Moni's property before the Genoese took Chios, then passed to Genoese hands, before being sold back to the monastery in 1642 by Ploumou Justiniani, wife of Vincentio. It remained monastic property until 1912. The masonry contains brick and tile fragments, a Byzantine echo in a Genoese building.