Castle of Grias

The Castle of Grias rises above Kardamyla, a major village of NE Chios. The castle is reachable by an old, waymarked footpath. It is a medieval fortification consisting of two towers joined by a strong wall. The eastern tower is semi-elliptical, the western round. It forms part of a broader organized defensive plan of the medieval period, although remains of a Hellenistic wall attest that the site was already fortified in antiquity. During the 1912 liberation campaign, the Grias area was the stronghold of the struggle. Local tradition says its name comes from an old woman who climbed up from Kardamyla via the sheer rocks to escape pirates. According to tradition, too, the western tower communicated by tunnel with the so-called “Well of Koulalas.”