Castle of Chios (Kastro)

On the northern edge of the harbour of Chios Town, a long stretch of stone wall and dry moat encloses the old fortified quarter of the island's capital. The Castle of Chios, known as the Kastro, is a medieval citadel built mainly of reddish-brown local stone, and it has been the core of the town for around a thousand years. Unlike many castles that stand empty, this one still has people living inside it, so a walk through the Kastro takes you past front doors, courtyards and washing lines as well as ramparts.

The site was fortified in Byzantine times, probably from the tenth century, and its present shape owes much to the successive rulers of the island. After the Fourth Crusade, Chios passed through several hands. The Republic of Genoa held it from the fourteenth century under the Zaccaria family and then, from 1346, under a trading company led by the Giustiniani, who made the island rich from mastic, the resin of a local tree prized across the Mediterranean. The Republic of Venice held the island briefly in the late seventeenth century, and the Ottoman Empire ruled from 1566 until 1912, when Chios joined Greece. Each period left its mark on the walls, the gates and the buildings inside.

The defences consist of a high curtain wall with towers and bastions, with a moat on the north and west sides, which was designed to protect the town against attack from the land and sea. The main gate leads into a maze of lanes lined with houses from the Genoese, Ottoman and later periods. Some of the buildings are ruins and some are lived in, and there are remains of an old mosque, a bathhouse and a few churches. A few parts, such as the old palace of the Giustiniani, have been restored.

The Kastro also carries painful memories. In 1822, during the Greek War of Independence, Ottoman troops slaughtered or enslaved tens of thousands of the island's Chian inhabitants in a massacre that shocked Europe and inspired a famous painting by the French artist Delacroix. The event is remembered on the island, and the walls form part of that history.

Visitors will find that the castle is owned by the Greek Ministry of Culture and is open to the public, and wandering through it is free. From the walls, there is a view across the busy harbour, the town and the Aegean Sea toward the Turkish coast, which lies only a few kilometres away. A walk along the perimeter and a stop at a cafe in the Kastro square makes an easy half-day, and it pairs with the beaches and the mastic villages of the south of the island.