A few castle ruins 1 km north of the village of Neo Souli in the prefecture of Serres, on a trapezoidal hill called Grandiskos or Kokkinokorfi.

Te (Slavic) name Grandiskos means castle and the name Kokkinokorfi comes from the reddish color of the soil.

History

The history of the castle is unknown. The surface pottery belongs to the Late Roman and Early Christian period, so we will characterize it as Early-Byzantine.
The castle of Neo Souli is one of several unidentifiable fortified settlements that exist at the foot of the Menoikio mountain, such as the castle Chionochori, the castle Agios Pneuma, the castle Oinousa.

The creation of these fortified castles - settlements is dated from the 3rd-4th century AD. This is deducted from the use of lime mortar in masonry. From that period onwards raids and looting had begun in northern Greece by various barbarian tribes (Huns, Goths, later the Slavs, etc.). As a result, in order to protect themselves, the inhabitants gathered in natural fortified positions in the mountains and semi-mountains and surrounded their settlement with a wall. It is possible that some pre-existed as simple settlements that were later fortified due to raids.

At a distance of 1.5 km north of the castle, iron ores can be found. It is likely (Samsaris, 20004) that the castle is related to this location and was perhaps created to control the safe movement of ores.

Structure, Fortification & Buildings

The castle of Neo Souli is located on top of a trapezoidal hill at the foot of Mount Menoikion. From the north and south it has steep slopes, while from the west and east there are deep ravines.
The hill is divided into two plateaus: the summit plateau and the southern plateau (see the photo above). Judgung from the few ruins, it seems that this whole area was surrounded by a perimeter wall.

This wall it consisted of mudstone construction with a binding mortar in between. Today, the only part preserved with lime mortar is that of the southwest corner for about 10-15 meters at a low height, less than 1 meter (photos 1, 2, 4).

Apart from this, clear traces of a wall exist only on the north and west sides. On the north side there is a continuous pile of stones 250 meters long which is the remnant of the destroyed wall (photo 5).
In two places (one in the west and one in the north) the thickness of the wall was measured to be 1.10 m. On the south and on the east side the traces of the wall are lost.

Scattered stones, ceramics and parts of jars which are remains can be seen throughout the area of the settlement.
The perimeter that surrounded the wall was quite large and is estimated at around 800 meters.

From the top of the hill there is a great view of the Serres plain. Also, the point has visual contact with the villages of Neo Souli, but also the neighboring castles Chionochori and Agio Pneuma.

Sources