Ios Palaiokastro

Ios Municipality, Greece

Open to visitors

The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.

Palaiokastro is a Byzantine-style castle built in 1397 on a hilltop 275 meters high in the eastern part of the Aegean island of Ios, some 17 kilometers from Chora. Constructed by Francesco I Crispo, Duke of Naxos, the fortification was erected on the foundations of an earlier Byzantine castle that had occupied the site. Today, only fragmentary ruins remain—sections of defensive walls and the remains of internal structures—along with the small Church of Panagia Paleokastritsa, which now stands within the castle's perimeter.