Skorpios

On the southeastern tip of Skorpios, the small Ionian islet off Lefkada, stands a ruined tower of uncertain age, probably built around the sixteenth century. It occupies a tiny, overgrown peninsula known as Kastri, a "tied island" connected to Skorpios by a sandbar, and it once guarded the only easy approach from that side. Traces of an outer enclosure suggest the fortification may originally have sealed the sandy isthmus entirely. Dense vegetation now hides the structure, though a 1905 photograph by Wilhelm Dörpfeld shows it clearly; recent images reveal it has deteriorated since.

The tower's history is unknown, but it is certainly not ancient. Skorpios itself enters the record only after 1684, when Venice took Lefkada. The historian K. Sathas, writing in 1866, called the islets a medieval pirate haven and identified this tower as a pirate den. Given its position and form, that seems plausible: it fits neither a Byzantine fortress nor a Venetian watchtower. The island later passed through various owners, including the Trevisan, Settini and Mavroidis families, before Aristotle Onassis bought it in 1963.