Sfelinos

The ruins known as the Castle of Sfelinos sit on a steep, naturally fortified hill called Grandiskos, part of the Menoikion mountain ridge in the Serres region, about four kilometres north of the village of Sfelinos and closer to Skopia. The hill, at 900 to 929 metres, is ringed by ravines and accessible only by a long, narrow ridge from the north-east, which was the weakest point and where the best wall sections survive. The name Grandiskos is Slavic for town or castle, and the site likely began as a Roman or Early Byzantine fortified settlement, perhaps in the 3rd or 4th century CE, with a perimeter wall of 750 to 800 metres in a fusiform shape. Built of mudstone with mortar and brick, the wall survives in places up to 2.80 metres high and 1.60 metres thick, with small square holes possibly from scaffolding. The settlement was probably abandoned by the 5th to 7th century, then reoccupied as a village in the Late Byzantine period, which may explain the wall's partial dismantling for building material. Ancient tombs nearby suggest earlier occupation, and the site is now a declared archaeological area, though in ruins.