Few and indistinct remains of a monastery tower on a low mound 1.5 km southwest of Nea Roda, Halkidiki, at the narrowest point of the NE tip of the Athos peninsula, very close to the Xerxes’ Canal (which canal, it should be noted, is not visible).

This area of ​​the isthmus was called Provlakas since many centuries (a corruption of “Preaulakas” which apparently means before the canal).

History

This is one of the towers that protected the dependencies of monasteries on Mount Athos in Chalkidiki. Professor I. Papaggelos in his monumental publication in the magazine Hellenic Panorama (Papangelos, 2000) spotted 29 such surviving towers in Chalkidiki, most of which are in a dilapidated state and some, like the tower on this page, are almost indistinguishable.

Several monasteries had dependencies in the Provlakas area. It is reported from the sources that there were at least 4 monastic towers in Provlakas. The only one of which visible ruins survive is this particular tower, which protected a dependency (metochi) of the Holy Monastery of Megisti Lavra.
The identification of the tower was made by Papangelos and is generally accepted, but we should note that we cannot be 100% sure that this was indeed the Lavra’s metochi and not one of the other dependencies.

The Lavra’s tower in Provlakas is mentioned in documents of various monasteries (mainly of the Megisti Lavra, naturally) of the 13th and 14th centuries. The oldest known reference dates from 1267, in a document of the Zografou Monastery, but the tower may be considerably older, perhaps from the 11th or even 10th century. (This assumption is reasonable because it is a certain that the Lavra’s metochi in Provlakas existed at least since the 11th century.)

Of the remaining towers of Provlakas, one was the Vatopedi tower of Ladiavas at the location where the school of Nea Roda is located today. For the other two (the tower of Esphigmenou and the tower of Chelandari), Papangelos describes their locations very close to the Xerxes’ Canal, in places where today there are just piles of dirt and stones.

Another tower is located a little further, east of Nea Roda, part of an old metochi of Iviron monastery, the Tower at Pyrgoudia, which is often referred to (on the internet) as “Tower of Provlakas”.

According to monastic documents, the towers in Provlakas were destroyed in a major earthquake in 1585. It is possible that repairs were made after that disaster, but the final loss certainly occurred in 1821 when, with the outbreak of the Greek Revolution, many towers were demolished by the Turks.

Sources