A few castle ruins on the plateau of the top of a conical hill named “Agia Triada” above the village of Silimna in Arcadia, 5 km. west of Tripoli.

Location & Strategic Scope

The position has visual contact with the castle at Trikorfa, with Davia and with the castle in Kokkinies, at a nearby hill to the NE.
It also controls the mountain pass from the Tripoli plain to the Elissonas valley.

History

The history of the castle is not known. The way some buildings were built with rough stones, connected with strong lime mortar and admixture of tiles, indicates that they are either from the Byzantine period or the Frankish period. Also, remains of an ancient wall indicate that the site was fortified in Antiquity. Perhaps it was the acropolis of an ancient –unidentified at present– city.

The one and only time we encounter the castle in a historical source is its entry as Silimo in the Venetian catalogue of the castles of the Morea of ​​1467, where it is noted that it is destroyed. (However, we cannot be absolutely sure that Silimo is identical with Silimna.)

It is worth noting that the 19th century researchers W.M. Leake and W. Loring identified the castle of Silimna with the dry stone fortification on the opposite hill, at Kokkinies. However, they probably had not noticed the ruins on the hill of Agia Triada.

Structure, Fortification & Buildings

The top of the hill forms a plateau of 15✖28m., with an area of ​​420sq.m.
The northern slope is steep, while the eastern one is smooth. To the east, where the current access path from the village ends, the gate must have been located, at the point where the foundations of a small tower measuring 2✖2m are observed. Traces of a cistern are preserved nearby.
On the northern side of the castle are the remains of a tower 2.30✖2.40 at a surviving height of 1m. The wall of the tower, built with rough stones and lime mortar, is half a meter thick. Next to it are the ruins of a building measuring 2.30✖2.40m. From this point to the supposed eastern gate, a wall made of massive stones begins, which appears to be ancient.
The “ancient” wall reaches the topographic mark of the GYS and from there continues as dry stone (which does not appear to be ancient).

To the west, at the root of the hill, there are foundations of a building that may have been a tower, a remnant, perhaps, of an external fortification at the foot of the hill.
On the south side of the hill there are traces of walls.

Sources