A tower-like building in the old Benakis estate, which in Kastrologos we believe it was a Medieval tower that went through extensive modifications to reach its current form (without demolishing the core of the initial structure)

This is the No.17 tower in the Langdon list of the Mortared Towers (=medieval towers) of Attica.

History

The tower is inside the complex of the Benakis estate. In the estate there are a couple of other buildings that also are described as towers (and are relatively more imposing) but they are constructions of the late 19th to early 20th century and they will not be presented in this site.

The estate belonged to an Ottoman pasha who after 1830 had to leave, so he sold the property to Greek landlords. After 1911 the owners were the Benakis family and after 1962 the Benakis museum. The property is actually abandoned after the early ‘60s.

Researchers of the 19th century reported that a well preserved medieval tower stood in the middle of a square formed by other buildings of the property. It was used for grain storage.

We believe that the tower of those descriptions is the tower we present in this page (the latest use of which was pigeon house!). Several indicators support this hypothesis: the dimensions of the building, its shape, its strong structure (for a storage room), the thickness of its wall, the (old) type of stone construction, the absence of other traces of the observed medieval tower.

Sources