Rising above the harbor of Chios Town, the medieval castle is the most visible monument on the island and one of the best-preserved Byzantine-Genoese fortifications in the eastern Aegean. Its origins date to the 10th century, when Byzantine emperors built the first defensive walls. The Genoese — who controlled Chios from 1346 to 1566 under their trading company, the Maona — dramatically expanded and strengthened the castle, adding the towers and gates that still define its silhouette today.
Inside the castle walls, the old Kastro neighborhood preserves a remarkable layering of civilizations. Byzantine churches stand beside Ottoman mosques. Genoese coats of arms are carved into doorways. The old Jewish quarter — Chios once had a thriving Sephardic community — is marked by a Hebrew inscription above one gate. The tomb of Kara Ali, the Egyptian admiral responsible for the 1822 massacre, is here too — a strange monument in the middle of a Greek city.
The castle is freely accessible and best explored on foot. The views from the walls over the harbor and the Turkish coast are superb, and the interior neighborhoods are full of authentic daily life — laundry on lines, cats sleeping in doorways, old men playing backgammon in the shade.