Ancient fortification in a region called “Árgos”, converted several times, so to a medieval castle of the Hospitaller Knights and a monastery.
It is located on a flat spur of a hill on the volcanoe’s caldera in the region of Árgos, southern part of the island.

Castle Description

General description
Árgos is a region in the south of the island of Nísyros. The traveller Francesco Piacenza (1688) mentioned a settlement. The castle “Árgos” which is known only as a monastery to the present population of the island, is located on a flat spur of a hill on the Volcano Caldera. Its nowadays common name “stó Stávro” is derived from the name of the church of the later monastery inside the castle.

The oldest known description of the castle comes from the former “upper conservator” of the [Greek] Antiquities and professor of archeology at the “King Otto’s University of Athens”, Prof. Ludwig Ross (1843), who visited Nísyros in the summer of 1841: “We found on the high and steep summit a – if one wants to allow this name created by the newer archeology – truly pelasgic bulge of uncut lava blocks, with smaller stones in the intermediate joints, as in Tyrins. Inside are two old chapels and a lot of small dilapidated stone houses [...], which may be 2000 or even as little as 200 years old. It is a real Larissa, a real pelasgic Argos, and the Argeier, about whose branch on Kalymnos we have knowledge, may also have this colony founded in memory of their mother city” (in German original text: “Wir fanden auf dem hohen und steilen Gipfel eine – wenn man einmal diesen erst von der neueren Archäologie geschaffenen Namen zulassen will – wahrhaft pelasgische Umwallung aus unbehauenen Lavablöcken, mit kleineren Steinen in den Zwischenfugen, wie in Tyrins. Im Innern stehen zwei alte Capellen und eine Menge kleiner verfallener Steinhäuser […], die ebensowohl 2000 als 200 Jahre alt seyn können. Es ist eine ächte Larissa, ein ächtes pelasgisches Argos, und die Argeier, von deren Niederlassung auf Kalymnos wir Kunde haben, mögen wol auch diese Colonie zum Gedächtnis ihrer Mutterstadt gegründet haben”).

However, it is not known exactly when this ancient predecessor building of the medieval castle was built. A co-creation with the ancient fortification of the Kástro of Empórios on the island of Nísyros is to be assumed. Its enceinte resembles, especially in the area of the east gate, in its structure, the wall of the Kástro stó Stávro.
There is also little knowledge of the medieval history of the castle. It is not known whether it was used during the Byzantine period or re-created by the Order of St. John in place of the ancient fortification. Niccolo de Martoni, who visited Nísyros in 1394 reported three, Cristoforo Buondelmonti (1380-1430) in the 15th century five castles, including the castle Árgos (cf. Christophe [= Cristoforo] Buondelmont: Description des Îsles de l’Archipel [Publications de l’École de Langues Orientales, Quatrieme Serie, vol. XIV]. Translated by Émile Legrand; Editor: Ernest Leroux. Paris 1897; new edition Amsterdam 1974; cf. Also Buondelmonti: Liber insularum archipelagi, editet by R. v. Sinner 1824).
In 1433, the island was loaned to Fantino Querini, the Prior of Rome and commander of the neighbouring island of Kos, after the Hospitaller Knights had lent Nísyros for several years to Italian nobles. Querini had to make sure that all the castles of the island were “ben guardati, ben muniti, e riparati”.
Stephen C. Spiteri (1994) suspects that the Kástro stó Stávro is identical to the castle of Perva, which in 1453 was built in the interior of the island instead of an ancient fortification.

The “Pelasgic” enceinte mentioned by Prof. Ludwig Ross (1843) was preserved in larger parts when he visited the castle, but in the interior, apart from the Stávros Church, there were no medieval or even ancient buildings to be seen. After the construction works inside of the former monastery within the Kástro with some new buildings in the years 1989-92, it is hardly recognizable as a castle anymore. A new single-storey building wing on the south side of the complex serves to hold the annual church festival and to accommodate pilgrims. Already in the decades before the last alterations residential buildings and stables had been built in the castle, so that knowledge could only be gained about the medieval and ancient buildings by archaeological excavations.

As a result of the strong earthquakes in 1997 and a succession of aftershocks, the castle was further destroyed. The earth tremors have caused a larger section of the enceinte on the west side to collapse: the so-called “Pelasgic”, late medieval and modern-day altered masonry had partially slipped down the slope. Some parts of the enceintes’s wall have been improperly secured with cement mortar during the last few years.
Worth mentioning of the buildings inside is only the Stávros church on the north-eastern corner of the castle, which in its present form probably dates apparently from the end of the 15th/early 16th century. The appearance of the church is probably essentially that of the late St. John's period. (In other opinion it was built later in the “post-Gothic” style.) It is a single-aisle barrel-vaulted building, with a slight gothic sharpening of the vault. Its retracted apse pushes inside against the castle’s enceinte.

It is worth noting that there are visual connections from Árgos castle to the medieval castles of Parlettía, Emporeiós and Nikeía at Nísyros. From the castle in Nikeía one can see the island of Tílos, from the Kástro in Emporeiós, among others, the islands of Kós and Kálymnos. The Árgos castle may thus have played an important role in the visual system between the Dodecanese castles.

Access (route / entrance)
By car: Since the road, a gravel road with sinks, is hardly usable for rental cars, the castle is better accessible on foot from Mandráki.
Free access.

History of the castle/tower
It seems, the ancient castle was re-used during the Knights of St. John‘s (Hospitaller Knights‘) rule in the 15th/16th century as a refuge for the local population. Details and exact dates are not known.

Other Info

Sources