The Castle of Akrotiri, also known as Castle Akrotiri, Goulas or La Ponta, is a former Venetian castle on the Greek island of

Santorini Santorini (, ), officially Thira (, ) or Thera, is a Greek island in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from the mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago formed by the Santorini caldera. It is the southern ...

. The now-ruined castle lies at the center of the village of Akrotiri.

History

The castle was built in the 13th century by the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...

, which had occupied Santorini in 1207. Eager to fortify the island, the Venetians constructed a number of fortresses and watchtowers at key points around the island. Near the small hillside village of Akrotiri, Venetians engineers constructed a new castle on top of an existing Byzantine watchtower; this castle became one of the most defensible positions on the island. The fortress remained unconquered throughout the first of the Ottoman-Venetian Wars before finally surrendering to the Ottomans in 1617. The castle remained in relatively good condition until it was reduced to a ruin by an earthquake in 1956.

References

Santorini {{Greece-struct-stub