Mithymna Castle

The second most significant castle on Lesbos stands at Mithymna, also known as Molyvos, and its present appearance owes most to Genoese work of the fourteenth century, with later Ottoman touches. A hilltop acropolis had existed here since the fifth century BC, and the Byzantines likely raised a fortress on the same spot around the sixth century AD. That earlier structure was destroyed when the Genoans took the site in the thirteenth century, and in 1373 Francis I ordered its reconstruction. The Ottomans, who occupied the island from 1462, carried out their own repairs and modifications over the following centuries. The castle remains in relatively good condition, its walls and layout still conveying the layered history of ancient defence, Byzantine ambition, Genoese rebuilding and Ottoman adaptation.