Castle of Sifnos #1028

Description

Along with the other Cyclades, Sifnos was included into the Duchy of Naxos in 1207, under the Venetian Marco Sanudo, following the fall of Constantinople in 1204.

The Byzantines retook Sifnos in 1269, but Januli I da Corogna, an Italian or Spanish hospitaller (knight of the Order of St. John), declared himself an independent king in 1307. The Gozzadini family, a Bolognese dynasty, took over as the island's rulers in 1456 after the Corognas reigned for more than a century. The Gozzadini family continued to control Sifnos until 1617. Despite becoming fully Hellenized, both of these dynasties continued to practice Roman Catholicism.

The "castle" was initially created during the Corognas era (the fourteenth century), and it was refined during the Gozzadini era that followed.