Medieval castle, with remains of an ancient Pyrgos.

Castle Description

General Description
The island of Séskli or Sésklia is located 1 km south of Sými. It is 1.95 km long, up to 1.1 km wide and covers an area of 1.826 km². On the island there are ancient, medieval and modern settlement remains and traces.
The small Byzantine castle Kastraki was erected on the site of an ancient Pyrgos, which in turn may have been built within an older, more extensive fortification (?). The medieval core building (9.60 x 10.40 m), perhaps standing above the Pyrgos, shows mortared, tweaked masonry, which is partly covered with a wide joint plaster on the outside, which shows coarse, red brick. Plaster like this can be found on some of the Knights Hospitallers‘ castles on the Dodecanes.
The interior of the building is filled with a lot of collapse material. The enceinte is likely to be ancient. Most of the Kastraki is overgrown with shrubs and bushes.
The Castle and the former Pyrgos on its site formed part of Seskli’s defensive system, to which also the Pano Vardia (112m, served as a Vígla for the castle and the whole island) and the ancient Pyrgos above the port bay Skomiza belonged. The latter is situated on the southwest side of the Káto Kámbos hill, facing the bay. This (Hellenistic?) Pyrgos, locally known as “Pelasgic wall”, which may have been changed in Byzantine times, is highly endangered by erosion. In the terrain all around, a lot of antique and Byzantine ceramics were found.
Visual connections between fortifications on Séskli and Sými can be proven for later antiquity. A Byzantine re-use is to be assumed. There is a line of sight from the Kastraki to the Pano Vardia on Seskli, to the Pyrgos near Faneroméni on Symi’s south coast and to the Byzantine fortification on Mt. Stavros on Sými.
(The main photo shows a view from the Kastraki to the Pano Vardia.)

Access
The Castle is accessible by a footpath from Skomiza Bay on the southeastern side of the island, where some tourist boats stop during their “Round the island of Symi tour”. Follow the Monopati respectively track towards the Chapel Aghii Apostoli, there turn to the West into the Kato Alonia plain and you will see the castle on a hilltop. Further to the Northwest you will see the mountain Pano Vardia, which was part oft he island’s defensive system.
Free access to the castle, which is overgrown with shrubs and bushes.

History of the castle
Unknown. According to the findings and of the building stock most probably used and rebuilt in Byzantine times and during the reign of the Hospitaller Knights.

Other Info

Sources