Exomvourgo or Exobourgo (, /) is a mountain on the island of

Tinos Tinos ( ) is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It forms part of the Cyclades archipelago. The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos. It has a land area of and a 2021 census population of 8,934 inhabitants. Tinos is famous amo ...

. Unlike the other mountains in the

Cyclades The CYCLADES computer network () was a French research network created in the early 1970s. It was one of the pioneering networks experimenting with the concept of packet switching and, unlike the ARPANET, was explicitly designed to facilitate i ...

, it has a rugged appearance and is the site of a ruined Venetian fortress and town. Exomvourgo is not the highest mountain on the island—that is Tsiknias—but is in a central location ringed by many small villages such as Tripotamos and Falatados and can be climbed from several of these. The walk up from ''Iera Kardia Iisou'' takes around 20 minutes. The former Exomvourgos municipality shares its name with the mountain.

Ancient history

Remains dating from the

Copper Age The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in dif ...

have been found near Exomvourgo and

Geometric period Geometric art is a phase of Greek art, characterized largely by geometric motifs in vase painting, that flourished towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages and a little later, . Its center was in Athens, and from there the style spread among the t ...

and 5-6th century BC remains have been found at archaeological excavations at the mountain's southern foot including a temple of

Demeter In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Demeter (; Attic Greek, Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric Greek, Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Twelve Olympians, Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over cro ...

. A large wall from an Ionian town dating from 1100 BC is sited southwest of Exomvourgo. In the fourth century BC the island's administrative centre moved back from Exomvourgo to the coast.

Fortress and town

Under

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

rule a fortress, later named by the Venetians ''Castello di Santa Elena'' after a chapel on the summit, was built on the mountain and Exomvourgo functioned as the island's capital. The mountain was the site of a fortress and town functioning as the administrative centre of the island from 1207 when the island, along with

Andros Andros (, ) is the northernmost island of the Greece, Greek Cyclades archipelago, about southeast of Euboea, and about north of Tinos. It is nearly long, and its greatest breadth is . It is for the most part mountainous, with many fruitful and ...

Skiathos Skiathos (, ; , ; and ) is a small Greece, Greek Islands of Greece, island in the northwest Aegean Sea. Skiathos is the westernmost island in the Northern Sporades archipelago, east of the Pelion peninsula in Magnesia (regional unit), Magnesia ...

Skopelos Skopelos (, ) is a Greek island in the western Aegean Sea. Skopelos is one of several islands that comprise the Northern Sporades island group, which lies east of the Pelion peninsula on the mainland and north of the island of Euboea. It is par ...

and

Skyros Skyros (, ), in some historical contexts Romanization of Greek, Latinized Scyros (, ), is an island in Greece. It is the southernmost island of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC, the island was known as ...

became a

fiefdom A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

of the Venetian brothers Jeremie and Andre Ghisi following the partition of the Byzantine Empire after the fall of

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

during the

Fourth Crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...

. In 1390, after the death of Batholomew III Ghisi, the

Venetian Republic 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 ...

assumed direct control and further fortified the mountain. The island fell to the Ottoman admiral

Hayreddin Barbarossa Hayreddin Barbarossa (, original name: Khiḍr; ), also known as Hayreddin Pasha, Hızır Hayrettin Pasha, and simply Hızır Reis (c. 1466/1483 – 4 July 1546), was an Ottoman corsair and later admiral of the Ottoman Navy. Barbarossa's ...

in 1537 but was recaptured by the Venetians in 1538. The fortress was then further expanded until it featured 600 m long ramparts and towers facing in all directions. In this era the town inside the castle had a population of 1000-2000 and contained 677 houses, 5 churches and some storage areas and

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

s. In 1570 a force of 8,000 Ottoman troops and several cannons, commanded by Canum Pasha, besieged the mountain, but were successfully repulsed. Further failed attempts to capture the fortress were made in 1655, 1658, 1661, and 1684. By 1700 the fortifications were not in a good state and the fortress was only manned by 14 soldiers. The Venetians remained in charge until 1715 during the last Ottoman–Venetian war when, long after the rest of the Cyclades had fallen to the Turks, it was besieged by a Turkish force of 65

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is used for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as b ...

s and 74 transports carrying 25,000 soldiers. Despite the fortress being regarded as unconquerable and seeming secure against the invaders the commander of the fortress negotiated terms and surrendered. The terms allowed all the Venetians on the island to leave with the Greeks forced to stay. The commander and his officers were accused of "

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

after

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

" by the Venetian Republic and sentenced to death by swallowing liquid silver/having liquid silver poured on their bodies Bernardo Balbi the rector (governor) of the island, was transferred to Venice and sentenced to life imprisonment for cowardice. The Ottomans almost completely dismantled the fortress and the town inside it within a period of 3 days. The town on the mountain was previously known as Tinos (''Tine'' or ''Tino'' to the Venetians) with the current town of

previously known as San Nicolò. The name Exomvourgo derives from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''exo apo to bourgo'' meaning "outside the

burg The German word Burg means castle. Burg or Bürg may refer to: Places Placename element * ''-burg'', a combining form in Dutch, German and English placenames * Burg, a variant of burh, the fortified towns of Saxon England Settlements * Burg, Aar ...

Sacred Heart of Jesus

The church of ''Iera Kardia Iisou'' (Sacred Heart of Jesus) is on the slopes of the mountain, it is now a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

. The church has a complicated history: originally the Cathedral of Saint Sofia stood within the walls of the fortress but after its destruction the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

monks moved into a small church outside the walls and began to build a larger church next door. This was finished in 1725 and also dedicated to Saint Sofia. The Jesuits later left the church and it fell into disrepair. In 1895 the church was restored and renamed the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Today the church is a site of

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

and hosts visitors from around the world.

Notes

:1.Other references state this was after an intermediate period under George III

References

{{Castles in Greece Mountains of Greece Venetian archaeological sites in Greece Forts in Greece Landforms of Tinos Jesuit churches Mountains of the South Aegean

Ancient history

Fortress and town

Sacred Heart of Jesus

See also

Notes

References