CASTLES Touring Naxos Island you will realise that the island has a unique nobility. The island owe a part of this beauty in the existence of the Towers that was built the period of the Venetian domination.

We watch the castles, during our tour to the town and to the villages and all of the castles - even and those that bring the ravages of time, maintain something from their old glamour. The imposing buildings constituted the residences of the sovereigns that managed the island.

It deserves to visit them, to walk in their yard and to leave your imagination to transport you in that years. When the pirates threatened the residents and the imposing impregnable castles provided protection to the people. That years were difficult but also were romantic too. The sufferings, the happiness, the cry and the laugh of the rich and the poor people and of the sovereigns and the villagers, all the past of the island remains alive in the castles!

The castle in the heart of Chora goes back to the era of Venetian rule (1204-1537 AD), and although it is preserved in almost its original form it is inhabited to this day.

Passing through the 3 doors that lead to the castle we let time lead us to a different era, where the noble mansions with the emblems in their entrances we reigning, the countless "sokakia" (narrow pathways), the cheery white-painted countryards, a world of grandeur. From the seven towers of the castle only the tower of Krispi survived (tower of Glezos) which was home of the last dukes of the island. In 1207 Frankish rule was established in the Aegean. The Venetian Markos II Sanoudos built the fortress of Chora in Naxos with circuit towers, one of which, the Glezos tower (Crispi) is still preserved. Over the main entrance to the tower is the coat-of arms of the Crispi family.