Kastrologos

Castles of Greece
 

Sidirounda, Chios, North Aegean

Tower of Sidirounda

  
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Location:
At the center of the village Sidirounda of Chios island
Region > Prefecture: Greek Map
North Aegean
Chios
Municipality > Town:
City of Chios
• Sidirounda
Altitude:
Elevation ≈ 180 m 
(Relative Height≈0 m)
Time of Construction   Origin
probably late 14th cent.  
Late-BYZANTINE
H 
Castle Type   Condition
Tower  
Good
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Medieval tower in the center of Sidirounda village of Chios, opposite the church of Agios Georgios.
According to the oral tradition of the village, the tower used to have three floors. The same tradition speaks of a castle with two entrances that protected the settlement.
Today, only the ground floor survives from the tower, which has been renovated and houses the folklore museum of Sidirounda.

The village was a dependency of the Monastery “Nea Moni” of Chios, according to a bull of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (reign: 1391-1425).

The construction and location of the tower resembles the towers found in other villages of Chios. Moreover, the defensive arrangement, around the tower, of the old stone houses whose walls form the settlement's fortification is similar to the design of the castle-villages in the south of the island.

Towers of this type in Chios are generally Genoese constructions, built at the end of the 14th century. or the 15th century. However, we will classify this particular tower as “Late Byzantine”, since it is rather unlikely that a Genoese tower was built on the property of a Byzantine monastery.

Sidirounda, built on the top of a hill, has direct visual contact with the dense network of vigles of western Chios with the closer ones of Pahis and Prastia.


First entry in Kastrologos:    October 2022

Sources

  • Photos (May 2021) and information: Michalis.