Α fortified tower above the “Lefkes” beach of northwestern Patmos. It was probably a vigla (coastal watchtower).

The location had very good view of Lefkes beach from a protected position and with the possibility of communication with the interior of the island (through other outposts or towers, possibly). However, it could not have good supervision of the sea area to the west of Patmos, only the beach and the small bay of Lefkes (which in another era might have been a busy port).

We do not know anything about the history of the building or about the date of its construction. It is obviously a fortified structure as, apart from the fact that it is located in a spot that dominates the beach, it has strong masonry and an additional external scarpa (mantle wall) with lime mortar. It is an almost square building with sides about 6m long. The sloping mantle wall that reaches all the way up and which was apparently added in a later construction phase, gives it a pyramidal shape.

As mentioned, we do not have enough info to date it nor can we be sure of its use. Perhaps it was a tower house or a coastal observation and defense tower (vigla) or simply a water cistern. It is certainly not an ancient construction.
It is most likely a medieval vigla. It must have belonged to the Monastery of Agios Ioannis of Patmos and that is why we mark it “Byzantine”. The Monastery owned the whole island from the 11th to the 19th century.
In Patmos, there must have been other such watchtowers on the coast (perhaps there are still remains that we don’t know about).

We should point out that the most characteristic element of the construction is the disproportionately large, high and strong scarpa that surrounds the older masonry. This type of external walls were intended to enhance the fortifications’ resistance to cannons. In this particular case, it also had the role of supporting the older construction. This kind of walls are not found in other viglas in the Aegean and this creates some doubts whether it was really a vigla.
However, there is a building in Patmos that has a similar scarpa style and this is none other than the monastery of Agios Ioannis in Patmos (on a much larger scale of course). We assume that the scrapa in the tower in Lefkes was built at the same time as the scarpa in the monastery which we know was added around the middle of the 17th century.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that there are 2 other building in the Aegean with a similar mantel wall (entirely surrounding an older building at a considerable height): the Fotodoti Monastery in Naxos and the Goulas of Emporeio in Santorini , which – by no means coincidentally – they are both dependencies of the Monastery of Agios Ioannis of Patmos...

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