Myrina Castle #974

Description

On the rock, there has been an old acropolis from the thirteenth century BC.

At the start of the 12th century, the Byzantines constructed the first iteration of the medieval fortress. Many materials originated from the vanished acropolis. Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos gave the command to fortify the fortress in 1085.

Lemnos was transferred to the Latin Empire when the Fourth Crusade caused the Byzantine Empire to dissolve and divide. In 1207, the Venetian Navigajoso family, led by the megadux Filocalo Navigajoso, was granted Lemnos as a fief. Following the death of Filocalo in 1214, his son Leonardo and his daughters divided the island into three fiefs. 

Following Leonardo's death in 1260, his son Paolo Navigajoso withstood Byzantine attempts at reconquest until his death in 1277 during the Byzantine admiral Licario's siege of the island. His wife persisted in the resistance, but in 1278 the Navigajosi were compelled to surrender and return the island to Byzantium.