An ancient castle above the town of Paramythia in Epirus.

The position was fortified for the first time in the Hellenistic period. In the 6th century AD it was rebuilt like many other castles of the Byzantine empire during the reign of Justinian. The castle remained in use during the whole Byzantine period as well as during the Turkokratia (Ottoman occupation). After the 13th century, the castle belonged to the Despotate of Epirus and thereafter changed many rulers (Serbs, Albanians, Byzantines, Latins) until the Ottoman conquest in 1449.

With the development of the town of Paramythia, the settlement in the castle gradually declined until the beginning of the 19th century when it was finally abandoned.

The castle was named after the patron saint of Paramythia, Saint Donatos.

Structure, Fortification & Buildings

The castle consists of an outer fortified enclosure with a polygonal plan, reinforced with towers, and an inner citadel at the highest point, to the east. The total fortifiead area is around 30,000 sq.m.

The northern side of the hill is rocky, inaccessible and therefore remained unwalled, while the southern side was walled only in its vulnerable parts. The largest part of the walls is on the western side of the hill, towards the side of the city (of Paramythia), which is also the most accessible.

In its construction, at least three building phases can be distinguished chronologically:
The Hellenistic, which consists of large-scale limestone buildings, the Byzantine with stones, plinths and mortar and the Ottoman.

Inside, there are ruins of houses, a mosque, various vaulted spaces (mostly Turkish) along the western side of the walls and ruins of various buildings.

The walls in some places are preserved up to a height of 5 m.

On the west side of the castle, its central gate is preserved, on either side of which, outside the walls, there are two reinforcing buttresses. This gate definitely dates back to the Byzantine phase. A second gate exists on the northwest side of the fortified enclosure. The oldest gate was the eastern one, which was underground, under the eastern part of the ancient wall and partially carved into the natural rock.
Along with the gate that exists in the citadel, the gates of the castle were four.

In the eastern part of the castle, at the highest point of the hill, a citadel is built, measuring approximately 25✖47m, separated from the rest of the fortification by an inner wall reinforced with four towers. Two of them protected the entrance to the citadel and the third the eastern gate of the castle enclosure. A ramp leads to the acropolis on the west side, ending in a gate. The interior of the acropolis is shaped by a parapet wall on two levels. The inner north face of the wall at the lowest level is formed by alternating blind arched niches and openings (photo 3,7). On the upper level of the acropolis, remains of a cistern and of some buildings can be seen.

Below the castle, the Koulia of Paramythia is also preserved, the only one of the old tower houses that has been preserved to this day (reconstructed).

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