Castle of Chora #1013

Description

In the eleventh century, the Byzantines constructed the first fortress. The primary cause was Tzachas, the Seljuk emir of Smyrna (on the coast of Minor Asia), who was waging a dangerous invasion on the islands in the eastern Aegean.

The final shape of the fortress was added later, in 1495, by the knights of St. John, who held Dodecanese from 1309 to 1522.

Beginning in the middle of the 18th century, the threats that first drew people within the castle—pirates, for example—started to decline. As a result, the populace in Chora began to build new homes outside the castle. When the final occupant moved out in 1812, the castle was abandoned.