Tower of Dotia: A Genoese Defensive Tower on Chios
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Greece
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Genoese
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Tower
On this page4 sections
History
The Tower of Dotia is a Genoese defensive tower on Chios island in Greece, built at the beginning of the fifteenth century, probably between 1410 and 1415. The Genoese were the inhabitants and political authorities of Genoa, a major medieval maritime power with territories and trading interests in the eastern Mediterranean. The tower stood at the northwestern edge of Dotia village, south of Pyrgi and the port of Emporios, within the wider Genoese fortification system on Chios.
Its main purpose was to protect mastic production in the surrounding Mastichochoria, the group of villages in southern Chios associated with cultivating and producing mastic. Mastic is a resin obtained from the mastic tree and was an important commercial product of the island. The Tower of Dotia was closely connected with the lookout posts at Kefalia and Vroulidia, forming part of a defensive network serving this productive region.
Remains
The Tower
The four-sided tower has a rectangular plan measuring approximately 14.28 by 15.70 metres and rises to about 18 metres. Built from light-grey limestone blocks, it originally contained three levels. Most of its walls remain, while the southern wall is partly ruined. The upper battlements had seven merlons on each of the western and eastern sides and four on each of the northern and southern sides. Many of these raised sections have fallen.
The defensive arrangement controlled access to the building. There was no entrance at ground level, and a ladder led to a doorway on the first floor. Openings at the highest level supplied ventilation and light. Inside, the bases of walls dividing the ground-floor rooms survive, together with traces of vaulted ceilings on the first and second floors.
Enclosure and Setting
A quadrangular enclosure surrounded the tower and formed part of the defensive complex. Bastions stood at its corners, although only traces of the enclosure foundations survive. The site lies at approximately 104 metres above sea level. The terrain is hilly to the northwest and flatter to the south, with the nearest sea south of the tower. Mount Tráchonas, which reaches 336 metres above sea level, is about 1.8 kilometres to the west.
