Kastrologos

Castles of Greece
 

Agios Panteleimon, Marathon, Eastern Attica,Attica

Tower of Marathon B

  
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Location:
South of Marathon and 600m north of the soros of the Marathon warriors
Region > Prefecture: Greek Map
Attica
Eastern Attica
Municipality > Town:
City of Marathon
• Agios Panteleimon
Altitude:
Elevation ≈ 8 m 
(Relative Height≈0 m)
Time of Construction   Origin
Unknown  
BYZANTINE
Hon 
Castle Type   Condition
Ruined Tower  
Few Remains
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Remains of the lower part of a medieval tower in the settlement Agios Panteleimon of Marathon, 600 m from the Soros, on a plot fenced and locked by the Greek Archaeological Service.

This is the No.19 tower in the Langdon list of the Mortared Towers (=medieval towers) of Attica.

This rectangle of finely worked marble blocks has long attracted attention and led to the hypothesis that a tower stood there in the antiquity, perhaps as part of a larger construction.

Excavations have shown that this was only partially correct. The structure is indeed a tower , but the ancient marble blocks had been taken from somewhere else and reset in mortar in medieval times.

The single preserved course consists entirely of ancient blocks with vertically stippled outer faces.

It measures 6.63✖4.57 m. The ancient blocks vary in thickness but rubble and mortar are used to expand all four walls to a uniform width of 84 cm.

We cannot know precisely the time of its construction. It could be Frankish or perhaps Byzantine like the tower of the Trophy of Marathon which is near (2800m) and very similar in construction and state of preservation.


First entry in Kastrologos:    April 2019

Sources

  • Research and photographs by Ioannis Dedes (September 2018)
  • M. K. Langdon, (survey 1986), The Mortared Towers of Central Greece: An Attic Supplement, The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 90, Centenary Volume (1995), item 19, pp. 483