Α castle on a hill opposite from the village Aetos in Akarnania, in West Greece.

History

It was built by the Byzantines sometime between the 4th and 6th century AD and was completed in 1250, when it belonged to the Despotate of Epirus. Its purpose was to provide protection from the Barbarian raids of the early Byzantine period (Huns, Visigoths etc.) and to control the passage through the mountains to the shore.

After 1204 and the Fall of Constantinople during the 4th Crusade, it was taken for a while by the Latin conquerors of Greece and a little later became part of the Byzantine Despotate of Epirus. It remained so until 1340 when it was occupied by the Serbs and later by Albanian warlords.

In 1399 was captured by the forces of Carlo I Tocco, the lord of Cephalonia and Zante (and vassal of the kingdom of Sicily)

The Tocco family later inherited Epirus too but they lost the whole region to the Turks, including the castle of Aetos, around 1460.

Structure, Fortification & Buildings

The castle covers an area 200m✖40m. Ιn its original form, it has an almost Frankish appearance having outer bailey, inner bailey, and a keep.

The outer curtain, although much ruined, is traceable in its full length with the exception of the eastern cliffs where there is nothing because, maybe, a wall was not needed there.

The wall was reinforced at intervals with projecting square towers, the best example of which is the tower on the north side. On the west side, where the northern and southern walls converge, there was another tower.

At the top of the castle there is a rectangular enclosure that included a tower which today is in rubbles hidden under vegetation.

The gate must have been somewhere in the southwest edge of the wall where the remains of a tower. Two additional towers were on the south side (see. Layout)

Sources