Marmari

The Marmari tower stands on a hill between the town of Amfipolis and the river Strymon, looking out over the archaeological site of Amphipolis. It was built in 1367, a date known from an inscription now kept in the museum of Amfipolis. The builders were Ioannis and Alexios, high officials in Constantinople who owned land in the area. Before 1384, the tower was given to the monastery of Pantocrator on Mount Athos. Its condition is not good: only one floor survives, along with a single wall from the second storey. The most distinctive feature is the fabric of the building itself, for it is constructed entirely from ancient material quarried from the nearby ruined city of Amphipolis. This reuse of classical stone gives the late Byzantine tower a curious archaeological layering, as though the medieval structure is itself a small museum of its predecessor's remains.