Aspros Pirgos

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The White Tower, the circular marble building of the Late Classical / Hellenistic Age, is a special monument as its construction date is placed between the 4rd and the 3rd century BC. It consists of big white marble boulders, rising cyclically for about 12 meters (39 feet), surrounding the ground floor and the two floors above. Today only a small part of it is preserved, with a maximum height of almost 5 meters (16 feet). Its characteristics and the panoramic view of the spot where Aspros Pirgos is located prove that it was used as an observatory.

Its only entrance was at the ground floor and some narrow, spiral stairs led to the higher floors from the inside of the tower, where just a few openings served as windows and battlements. The building was destroyed a few centuries later, under unknown circumstances. A big part of it collapsed towards the inside, sealing it, while the remaining stones were scattered around it.

At the end of the 19th century a small cemetery and a small church dedicated to Agios Charalambos were built. The four-year restoration works of the White Tower (2010-2014), revealed parts of its ruins to have been used in the construction of later buildings, hidden behind their plastered stone wall. If we look thoroughly, we can see the marble stones integrated in the building of the small church, which are a structural part of it and thus they have not been removed.