🏛️ What Is Inside the Tower of Lykourgos Today?

Today, the Tower of Lykourgos houses a small museum, but its exhibition tells a story that stretches far beyond the lifetime of Logothetis himself. Alongside his life and activities, you can discover the history of Kastro Hill, the Byzantine castle and Samos during the medieval and early modern periods. The exhibition also includes finds from the castle, old Tigani and other Byzantine sites on the island.

The display cases contain fragments of pottery, coins, seals, architectural elements and everyday objects. Particularly interesting are the vessels that offer a glimpse into the daily lives of former inhabitants – they were used to transport wine and olive oil, prepare meals and store food. Some date back as far as the Early Byzantine period.

A large part of the exhibition consists of maps, old engravings, documents and information panels showing how the hill changed over the centuries. It is here that you can really understand that the tower we see today is only the most recent part of a much older story. The museum also explores the Samian Revolution, the activities of Lykourgos, the rebuilding of the fortress and the everyday life of his family.

It is therefore worth stepping inside even if the exhibition seems modest at first glance. This is where the ruins you have already seen around the hill begin to come together as one story.

👀 Don’t Miss

When exploring Kastro Hill, it is worth looking beyond the Tower of Lykourgos itself. What makes this place particularly fascinating is the way sites from completely different periods stand almost side by side.

👉 The ruins of three Early Christian basilicas – the foundations alone may be difficult to interpret, but one of the churches was the largest Early Christian basilica discovered on Samos and probably served as the seat of the island’s bishop.

👉 Remains of the older walls – the Tower of Lykourgos was not built on an empty hill. Look for fragments of earlier fortifications that were later incorporated into successive structures.

👉 The machicolation above the tower entrance – a small feature that reveals its defensive character. In the event of an attack, it allowed defenders to target an enemy standing directly below the entrance.

👉 The bath inside the tower – one of its most surprising rooms. Look at the dome with its small openings designed to let light into the interior.

👉 Old maps and engravings in the museum – they show the hill and the area around Pythagorio before Lykourgos rebuilt the fortress.

👉 The Church of Metamorfosis – step inside and take a look at the marble iconostasis. The church commemorates the victory over the Ottoman fleet in 1824.

👉 The white cemetery and sea view – this small cemetery among the cypress trees occupies a remarkable setting. It is also worth walking over for the view of the coast and the Aegean Sea.

ℹ️ Practical Information

🗺️GPS: 37.68854, 26.93958

🕒 Opening hours:

8:30–15:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Closed on Tuesdays and Fridays.

🎟️ Admission: free.

🚗 Parking: you can drive close to the hill. There is a public car park nearby, although during the high season the number of available spaces may depend on the time of day.

🛁 A Bath Inside the Stone Tower

The fortified residence contained something you might not expect to find behind such thick defensive walls – a private bath. It occupied a small rectangular room in the northern part of the tower, close to the kitchen. The room was covered by a dome with small circular and rectangular openings through which light entered the interior.

The bath drew on a bathing tradition dating back to Roman and Byzantine times, although it was much simpler. It had no hypocaust, or underfloor heating system. Hot water was most likely prepared in a cauldron beside the hearth in the neighbouring kitchen and then carried into the bath in containers.

This small room reveals a completely different side of the Tower of Lykourgos. Behind walls designed for defence, ordinary family life went on – meals were prepared, people slept, children were raised and everyday hygiene was taken care of. Details like these allow us to see the fortress not only as a historic monument, but also as a former home.

🚪 Lykourgos Leaves Samos

Lykourgos’s story in the tower came to an end in 1834. Decisions made by the European powers meant that Samos was not incorporated into the independent Greek state, but instead became an autonomous principality under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire. Logothetis, who did not accept the new political order, was forced to leave the island with his family. They took only their most essential belongings, leaving behind in the tower items they were unable to take with them.

A Turkish garrison was stationed in the abandoned fortress, but its importance quickly declined. Documents from 1836 show that many of the objects left behind in the castle disappeared during successive acts of looting. By 1840, the German archaeologist Ludwig Ross found the site abandoned.

Not long after Logothetis left, another remarkable episode took place here. In 1834, an attempt was made to transport ancient artefacts discovered during work at the castle to Constantinople – among them three damaged statues, reliefs and inscriptions. The shipment never reached its destination, however, because the ship sank.

Finally, in 1863, Lykourgos’s son Alexandros sold the castle and tower to the Samian state. The fortress that for several years had served as both the centre of government and the family home of one of the leaders of revolutionary Samos was about to begin another chapter in its history.

🧱 The Byzantine Castle

As the situation in the Aegean changed, Kastro Hill took on a new importance. A Byzantine fortress was built here no earlier than the end of the 7th century, at a time when Samos was vulnerable to Arab raids and its inhabitants were seeking safer, more easily defended locations. The castle was constructed partly on older foundations, reusing the remains of earlier buildings.

The location was ideal. From this relatively low hill, it was possible to control the harbour and watch the sea, from where an attack might come. Over time, the fortifications were expanded and repaired, while during the Middle Ages Samos was contested by the Byzantines, Genoese and Turkish rulers. In the 14th century, the island came under the control of the Genoese Giustiniani family, who probably also strengthened the fortifications here.

After Samos came under Ottoman rule in the 15th century and much of the island’s population left, the fortress gradually lost its importance and fell into ruin. It did not disappear completely, however. Several centuries later, Lykourgos Logothetis made use of its remains, deciding that the old hill above the harbour was the best place from which to defend Samos once again.

⚔️ Who Was Lykourgos Logothetis?

Lykourgos Logothetis was born Georgios Paplomatas in 1772 in Neo Karlovasi on Samos. He received a good education and, as a young man, left the island and entered the court of Konstantinos Ypsilantis, the hospodar of Wallachia. Around 1800, he received the title “Logothetis”, which eventually became part of the name by which he went down in history.

On Samos, he became involved in politics and sided with the Karmanioloi movement, which sought to limit the power of the local elite. In 1818, he joined the Filiki Eteria – the secret organisation preparing a Greek uprising against the Ottoman Empire. It was then that he adopted the name Lykourgos, referring to the legendary lawgiver of ancient Sparta.

When the Greek Revolution began in 1821, he returned to Samos and quickly became one of its most important leaders. He organised the island’s defence, established his own system of administration and became its leader. Samos managed to repel successive Ottoman attempts to land troops on the island, and Logothetis decided that it needed a place from which the harbour could be controlled and the southern coast defended. He chose Kastro Hill – the site whose long history we already know.

It was here, in 1824, that another chapter in the story of the old castle began.

⛏️ What Did Archaeologists Discover?

Excavations revealed that Kastro Hill had been used for thousands of years, with successive buildings constructed over the remains of earlier ones. Archaeologists found traces of structures from the Hellenistic and Roman periods, as well as foundations and sections of walls that were later incorporated into the Byzantine fortress.

The most fascinating discoveries lie on the eastern side of the hill. Here, archaeologists uncovered the remains of three Early Christian basilicas dating from the 5th century, built on the site of earlier Roman structures. One of them was exceptionally large and is considered to have probably served as the seat of the Bishop of Samos.

It was these excavations that revealed that the ruins visible today are not the remains of a single castle. In the same place, traces of ancient Samos, the Roman city, the first Christians and the later Byzantine fortress overlap. The 19th-century Tower of Lykourgos is only the final major chapter in this long history.

⛪ Three Basilicas on the Hill

Before Kastro Hill became a fortress, it was an important place for the first Christians on Samos. In the 5th century, no fewer than three Early Christian basilicas were built on its eastern side. Their remains can still be seen today near the Tower of Lykourgos.

First, at the beginning of the 5th century, a small basilica was built. Later, a much larger church was constructed beside it – the largest Early Christian basilica discovered on Samos. Its size and importance have led archaeologists to associate it with the seat of the island’s bishop. A third, much later basilica stood near the southern walls. Interestingly, these churches were not built on empty ground – they occupied the site and reused the foundations of earlier buildings dating from the Late Roman period.

The ruins are fragmentary today, so without knowing their history it is easy to walk past and see nothing more than stone foundations. In fact, they are a reminder that several centuries before the Byzantine castle was built, this hill was already one of the important centres of Christian Samos.

Tower of Lykourgos Logothetis – From a Byzantine Castle to the Home of the Leader of Samos

The Tower of Lykourgos looks like a small stone fortress – and that is essentially what it is. But the history of this site began long before the Greek Revolution. Beneath its walls lie the remains of an earlier castle, basilicas and even older structures, while the tower itself served not only as a defensive stronghold but also as the home of one of the most important figures in the history of Samos.

🏰 A Hill Older Than the Tower

The history of this site did not begin with Lykourgos Logothetis, or even with the Byzantine castle. The earliest traces of human presence on Kastro Hill date back to the end of the 4th millennium BC. Later, the hill became part of the heavily fortified ancient city of Samos and continued to be used for centuries, including during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

The most intriguing story, however, is connected with Polycrates, the tyrant under whose rule Samos experienced an extraordinary period of prosperity in the 6th century BC. According to one hypothesis, his palace may have stood on this very hill. There is, however, no evidence that allows us to say this with certainty.

Over the following centuries, the hill never lost its importance. New buildings were constructed here, while older walls and foundations were repeatedly reused. The Tower of Lykourgos that we see today is therefore actually the youngest layer of a site whose history stretches back several thousand years. What lay beneath the later fortress only began to emerge through archaeological excavations.

🏗️ The Old Castle Gets a Second Life

In 1824, Lykourgos Logothetis decided that the ruins of the old castle would once again become part of the defensive system of Samos. The hill above the harbour of Tigani, as present-day Pythagorio was then known, occupied a strategic position – it lay close to Chora, the island’s capital at the time, while also providing a vantage point over the sea and helping to protect the southern coast from the Ottoman fleet.

Rebuilding the fortress was a major undertaking. Logothetis appealed to the authorities of individual villages and to the Church for money, materials and workers. Specialists in lime production were brought from the village of Lakka. It was probably during this period that some of the marble elements from the old castle were broken up and used to produce lime. Today, this might seem like the destruction of historic remains, but in the 19th century old ruins were primarily regarded as a convenient source of building material.

Work continued until 1827, but Logothetis and his family moved into the tower as early as 1825, while construction was still under way. The former fortress was intended to serve several purposes at once – it was a defensive stronghold, a seat of government and the private home of the leader of Samos. It was not, however, built entirely from scratch. Remains of the earlier fortifications were incorporated into the new structure, and the present-day Tower of Lykourgos was built on the site of one of the towers of the former Byzantine castle.

The work was completed in 1827. The old fortified hill came to life once again – this time as a centre of power and the home of the Logothetis family.

🏠 A Fortress That Became a Home

The Tower of Lykourgos had to protect its inhabitants, but at the same time it had to be suitable for everyday life. Its design followed the tradition of fortified tower houses built on Samos in earlier centuries. These stone residences usually belonged to wealthy inhabitants and were intended to provide protection during attacks by pirates or raiders.

The lowest floor was used mainly for practical purposes – supplies and other essential items were stored there. Family life took place on the upper floors. The rooms had fireplaces, sleeping areas and characteristic raised platforms. A bed would be placed on top, while the space beneath the platform was used for storage.

The house, however, remained a small fortress. There was only one entrance, the windows were small and positioned high in the walls, and above the doorway was a machicolation – an opening through which attackers standing directly below the wall could be targeted.

Logothetis lived here with his wife and children. In 1827, his third son was born inside the tower. It is easy to forget, therefore, that behind these thick stone walls there was more than a military headquarters and seat of government. For almost a decade, this was also a real family home.

⛪ Church of the Transfiguration – a Memorial to Victory

Just beside the Tower of Lykourgos stands the Church of Metamorfosis tou Sotiros – the Transfiguration of Christ. Its construction is directly connected with one of the most important events in the revolutionary history of Samos – the repelling of the Ottoman fleet in August 1824. The victory saved the island from invasion, and its inhabitants also attributed their deliverance to divine protection.

Lykourgos Logothetis decided to commemorate the victory by building a church. Construction began in 1831, initially with a small single-aisled church. Over time, the building was enlarged with additional sections and a western entrance. The church was completed after Logothetis had already left Samos.

The date was no coincidence. The victory over the Ottoman fleet became associated with the Feast of the Transfiguration, celebrated on 6 August. An inscription still commemorates the event: “Christ saved Samos on 6 August 1824.” Every year on 6 August, the island’s inhabitants continue to commemorate the anniversary of the deliverance of Samos.

It is also worth stepping inside. One of the most striking features is the marble iconostasis, made by the local sculptor N. Perakis and dated to 1907. The church is therefore more than simply a neighbour of the old fortress. The tower tells the story of preparations to defend Samos, while the church standing beside it commemorates the victory that was believed to have saved the island.

⚰️ A White Cemetery Overlooking the Sea

Just beside the Church of Metamorfosis lies a small Orthodox cemetery. It is not part of the Early Christian remains discovered by archaeologists on the hill – it is a much more recent burial ground associated with modern Pythagorio.

The cemetery is small, but difficult to miss. White and pale marble graves stand among tall cypress trees, with the blue Aegean Sea visible between them. Many of the graves bear photographs of the deceased, along with memorial lamps, flowers and small personal objects left by loved ones.

It is worth walking through quietly, remembering that this is neither an archaeological site nor a tourist attraction, but a place of remembrance for the people of Pythagorio. Its setting – between the old walls, the church and the sea – nevertheless makes it one of the most distinctive corners of the hill.