Castle of Zakynthos: Surviving against the elements

On top of a pine-clad hill, 2km from the island’s modern town, the Castle of Bochali, as it is generally known, was constructed on the ruins of the ancient Acropolis (Psophis), while it is widely believed it was once fortified by the Byzantines in the past.

As was usually the case in the Ionian Islands, however, the basic fortification – parts of which are still preserved to this day – was mainly due to the Venetians, who reconstructed the fortress at the end of the 15th century, after its complete destruction by the Turks in 1479. The walls were completed by 1646, enclosing the island’s capital, while the cobbled road that reached the seashore, the famous Strada Giustiniana or Sartzada, was also laid, leading to the present-day town of Zakynthos. The Venetian legacy remains very much alive on the third gateway, where the walls are embellished with the legendary lion of Saint Mark.

After the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, and until the union of the Ionian Islands with Greece in 1864, the French, the Russo-Turks, the British and other conquerors would stay in the castle, leaving their mark on it.

Visitors can trace these marks in the surviving monuments: the stone vaulted prisons and the Venetian powder magazine, the command post, the barracks and the football pitch from the British rule, while excavations have so far unearthed the ruins of six churches from the 12th to the 17th century, the most important being the 12th century Byzantine church of the Saviour (San Salvatore). In certain parts the impressive fortification walls remain almost intact, despite the devastating earthquakes that have struck them mercilessly over the centuries, with the central bastion offering a unique view of the Zakynthos countryside.