Lauren & Randall Wander Through Greece: Ancient Fortress of Aigosthena

The Ancient Fortress of Aigosthena is located in West Attica region, outside Athens and most importantly, south of Thebes (Thiva). As Randall's post about the fortress at Eleutherai discusses, this was an area which was constantly in a state of civil unrest, and as a result, a lot of defensive fortresses and towers were built. We didn't get to all of them. The famous Mythological Atlas of Greece notes, there are about a half dozen places with significant archaeological remains in this area, and as my Google satellite map research indicates, most of these are fortresses or towers, located in the mountainous region. Which means that each and every one would likely require a hike of several hundred meters both in length and elevation. By this time, we just couldn't fathom doing 3 or 4 such hikes in a single day. We had to pick and choose our own battles.

So we narrowed the field to the two "level 5" sites. Now that I know there is a back way into Eleutherai, Randall and I could have saved ourselves some of the exertion, but then we would never have seen the snakes and boars.

The southeast tower of Aigosthena had been significantly rebuilt as of December 2017, which meant that with all the construction equipment, including a massive crane, there was a decent road which would go all the way to the tower.

Like Eleutherai, the fortress was a strategic defensive position, with heavily fortified walls on the north side (facing Thebes). However, Aigosthena is also a port city, and the fortress walls also extended to the sea.

View of the port from the fortress.

Outside the fortress.

Entrance through the North Wall.

Inside the fortress

Rebuilt Tower

Discussion of the history of deterioration of the tower, including archival photographs from which the design of the restoration had been based.

Top floor (of 3) of the tower, showing wood beam reconstruction, windows for defense, and wood flooring. The attendant at the site explained that the each of the three 9m cross beams were hewn from chestnut trees.

Second floor, showing slit windows and ceiling construction.

New stone from the original quarries was used. After 2500 years, it will age to the same color as the adjacent stones.
NB: there was also a really amazing map of the tower blocks, because nearly the whole tower needed to be disassembled to repair foundational structural damage and then rebuild. Each block was numbered on an elevation, and all the blocks were laid on the site pending being installed. The whole site was closed for a number of years during this process.