Vasilakio is a village at the slopes of mount Taygetos. Its old name was Tarapsa. The castle is on a hill south of the village. It is considered a characteristic sample of fortification architecture of the Turkish period.

The castle is also called Tower of Zaloumis.

History

Zaloumis was an Ottoman agha, probably of Greek origin, who appears in the region after 1770 as landowner and lord of the villages Asimi and Tarapsa (old name of Vasilaki). The area had mainly a Muslim Albanian population which was installed there as one of the measures to detain and control the rebellious people of Mani to the south.

Zaloumis built this castle as his mansion around 20 years before the Greek Revolution, according to the local tradition.
All the Muslims abandoned the region after 1821.

In 1834, king Otto of Greece ordered the destruction of all towers in Southern Peloponnese. This caused a small civil war. The Maniotes rebelled and managed to keep most of their towers intact. However, nobody cared about the Turkish fortresses and towers north of Mani, most of which were destroyed then.
One of them was the fortress of Tarapsa which was demolished with the use of a large quantity of explosives.

Sources