Castle of Chios

The Castle of Chios is a medieval citadel in Chios town on the Greek island of Chios.

The castle stands at the northern end of the harbour, which originally extended as far as its southern wall. Its eastern side fronts the sea, while the northern and western sides are of greater thickness and were defended by a wide artificial moat, now dry. The building is low and solidly constructed of reddish-brown local stone. It consists of an inhabited area surrounded by a large stone wall structure with various fortifications purposed to defend the enclosed population and properties against naval attack and siege.

The castle was first constructed in the medieval period, with an initial phase begun in the 10th century by the Byzantines. The structures surviving today belong to later construction and expansion carried out when the Genoese, who held commercial concerns on the island, ruled it during the 14th to 16th centuries. The surviving fortifications date from the Genoese and Venetian periods; the earliest date recorded by inscription is 1404, and the latest before the Ottoman conquest is 1522.

A fundamental topographical distinction is presumed between the Kastro—the fortified area on the north side of the harbour, inhabited by the garrison, officials and, in the earlier period, much of the Genoese aristocracy, together with the Jewish community—and the borghi, the districts of the town lying outside the castle walls.

The walls of the castle collapsed in an earthquake in 1389, which also damaged many of the houses within it. The defences were rebuilt from their foundations in 1401 and 1402, the work being entrusted to the Ragusan architect Leonardo d'Andrea, who raised a second wall within the first, constructed a triple outwork and excavated a double moat. The walls were patched up repeatedly throughout the Genoese period.

The Genoese garrison withstood a major Venetian assault in 1430, after which the castle—and especially the walls facing the harbour—was again extensively refortified, reportedly at a cost of 100,000 scudi financed by Genoa as a loan to the Giustiniani. The rebuilt walls of reddish local stone were ringed by a stronger moat and furnished with towers (torrioni), mortar emplacements and other defensive works of the newer type.

Text adapted from “Castle of Chios” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Castle of Chios ranks #2,734 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #38 of the 123 mapped in Greece. Founded c. 950, it is older than 93% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 129 atlas entries founded in the 10th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,323 times in the last 60 days, more than 56% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Greece compares in the castle statistics.

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