Apalyros/Apalire Castle

Department Archive
Collection Byzantine Research Fund
Reference No. BRF/02/01/16/025
Level Item
Place Apaliro Castle
Naxos Island
Scope and Content View from the south. The photograph is annotated in ink at the back. Creator unknown.
Further information Naxos and Paros were the two central islands of the Duchy of the Archipelago (or of Naxos or of the Aegean) which was established by Italian city states, especially Genoa, Pisa and Venice, in the Aegean after the siege of Constantinople in 1204. Marco Sanudo, nephew of Enrico Dandolo, who had established himself as the Duke of Naxia or of the Archipelagos, conquered the island in 1210, divided it into provinces and rebuilt its fortifications. The Greek Orthodox communities continued, however, to resist and established themselves around the fortress of Apalyros/Apalire which later also fell to Sanudo.