Castle of Santa Maura

The Castle of Santa Maura (Greek: Κάστρο της Αγίας Μαύρας) is a fortress on the northeastern tip of the Greek island of Lefkada. The castle began as a small fortification in c. 1300 to control access to the island, before it was expanded to become a walled town and the island's capital by the early 15th century. The Ottoman Empire took possession in 1479, and a century later rebuilt and enlarged it, giving it largely its present shape. A sizeable town grew outside the castle walls by the 1670s.

The fortress was captured by the Republic of Venice in 1684 after a brief siege. Under the Venetians, the castle was converted into a purely military installation; the walled town and the outskirts adjoining the walls were razed to improve its defences, and the capital moved onto the island itself, at the site of the present city of Lefkada. The fortress was modernized in the early 18th century, but was briefly abandoned by the overstretched Venetians in 1715–1716, during the Republic's last war with the Ottomans. The fortress, like the island, changed hands between France, the Russians, the Septinsular Republic, and the French again in 1797–1810, before being captured by the British, who controlled it until the cession of the Ionian Islands to Greece in 1864.

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

Castle of Santa Maura ranks #4,701 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #66 of the 134 mapped in Greece. Founded c. 1300, it is older than 63% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 860 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,602 times in the last 60 days, more than 61% of the atlas. 5 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Ioannina, 92 km away. See how Greece compares in the castle statistics.

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