This castle was constructed in the 15th century, mainly by the Knights of St. John. If you are arriving at Kos by ferry, probably this is the first monument that catch your eyes (right).
It is now preserved as an archaeological monument, and the entrance fee was €3 in 2006.
You enter the castle passing through this bridge, which used to be over the moat. With this moat, the castle was like an island. Later the moat was filled up, and became a road (Finikon street).
In the foto below is the entrance to the castle. Architectural elements of the Hellenistic period are reused here; they must have come from a theatre as these faces are masks used in ancient play. The coat-of-arms above it belongs to the Grand Master Amboise.
The photos of the beginning of the page and right are the inner, older caslte.
It was in 1314 the first castle was constructed here. This oldest castle was later destroyed completely. In 1451 Fantino Guerini, Venetian governor of Kos from 1436-53, started to construct a new temple, and in 1478, the Genoese governor Edoardo di Carmadino (1471-95) completed it. After being attacked by the Turks several times during 1457 and 1477, the Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson started the construction of outer castle in 1495 (in the second photo from the above is this), and the Grand Master Fabrizio Del Carretto completed it in 1514.
The reason why the Knights felt the necessity of the outer castle was that the developpment of artillery technology brought about in the second half of the 15th century. For this reason, the walls of the outer castle is very thick and massive.
This is the bastion of Del Carretto at the south-west corner of the outer castle. It has a similar shape to the homonymous bastion of the Rhodian castle of the Knights.
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Reference
- Robin Barber, Greece (Blue Guide), London- N.Y. 2001 (Revised reprint of the 6th edition of 1995), pp. 709-716.
- Marc Dubin, The Rough Guide to the Dodecanese & East Aegean Islands (3rd ed.), London: Rough Guides Ltd., 2002, p. 227-228.
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