THE CASTLE OF CHIOS

The Castle of Chios is located on the north side of the port of Chios town and has an area of about 180,000 sq.m.

The Castle includes a residential area, which is surrounded by stone walls, which aimed to protect the population from naval attacks and sieges.

Its walls are divided into land and sea, forming an irregular pentagon where strong bastions dominate along the walls, eight of the nine in total are preserved, some in very good condition and others do not. Part of the east side of the walls is not preserved today. The land walls surrounded a moat, creating an artificial island and thus contributing to the better defense of the Castle.

Today the trench has been drained and embanked. The Castle had three entrances, the main entrance-gate, the so-called "Porta Maggiore" (Porta Maggiore), the West Gate ("Epano Portello") and the Sea Gate (Porta di Marina), which today is not preserved.

In the interior of the Castle, apart from monuments of different eras, a living settlement is preserved with unbroken continuity through the centuries, which today numbers about 650 inhabitants.