The originality of this castle is that it was built according to a specific engineer’s plan, and was the first time in the Cyclades.
This unique and well-preserved castle has many entrances among only three have kept their wonderful wooden doors.
The huge and thick wall of the castle form a pentagon and used to have one tower on each corner; nowadays, only one tower is still standing, resisting against the damages of time.
In the centre of the castle, a main square has been constructed on which stand a beautiful catholic church and the well-preserved central tower. |
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to see and good examples of the architectural style of this epoch.
Most of those architectural beauties were situated within the castle for defensive reason and, for the same reasons, had thick walls.
The mansions standing outside the castle had a less severe architecture.
All of those beautiful houses have entrances made of fine marble on which the coats of arms of the noble family living there can be seen.
The interior of the mansions consists in a ground floor with an upper storey where the spacious living quarters were located; these beautiful rooms are supported by long cypress trees and their floor are covered with fine white Naxian marble.
The houses of the working class were built outside the castle and are typical whitewashed Cycladic buildings, with spare lines, flat roofs and coloured windows and doors.
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purpose they were built for: some towers were used by the Venetians in order to observe the locals and check about eventual pirate attacks, some other were constructed by the inhabitants to protect themselves against the various invaders, some other towers were built to serve as monasteries and, finally, some of those beautiful towers were used as country houses by Venetian nobles.
The richness and diversity of the architecture in Naxos gives to the island a particular and unique character and colour, charming every visitor who put his foot on this wonderful island. |
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