EARLY MEDIEVAL FORTIFICATIONS IN GREECE: Problems related to
their conservation, upgrading and rehabilitation.
1. State of existence
1.1 Introduction
Greece, due to its geographical position and nature, with very extended coastlands and
numerous islands, has a considerable great number of inland and maritime castles and
smaller fortresses that surpasses one hundred of sites.
This very significant part of our architectural and historical heritage has been the less
explored and most ill treated category of our historical monuments, although castles
of any period are very popular among the people of all ages and educational level.
Only the last five years the Greek state has undertaken a major program for
improvement of thirty five fortified maritime sites, known as Castrorum
Circumnavigatio, which nevertheless concerns mainly projects for providing visiting
facilities as paths, rest areas, lighting, parking areas ect, and no conservation or
restoration interventions. The reason for this decision was from one hand was from
one hand that these almost inaccessible monuments should became at first stage at
least friendly to the public, and from the other that their restoration and structural
problems are very extended, particularly difficult and require a colossal budget.
1.2 Principle types of Early Medieval fortifications
The main categories of Early Medieval fortification in Greece are the following:
a) Small forts
b) Castles and walled citadels in the country side.
c) Fortified citadels and city walls in modern urban centers.
Small forts
They are located in the middle of rural areas, by the seashore or in the vicinity of
villages and small towns.
The most simple type consists of a single tower and one or two dwelling buildings
incorporated to a limited fortified enclosure. They can be civic complexes or belong
to monastic institutions.
Castles and walled citadels
They are located at strategic points, on the top of hills controlling valleys, coasts or
mountain passage ways, and they are very often approached with difficulty.
They consist of an extend fortified enclosure of massive walls strengthened by a
number of projecting towers, which usually contains a free open space with or without
a central tower and a few scattered small structures (cisterns, soldier barracks,
church). In the case of more extended citadels small settlements with houses, roads, a
few churches and cisterns can also be found.
Ruined walled cities fall in the same category, with similar lay out but at a greater
scale.
Fortified citadels and city walls in modern urban centers
Fortified citadels in modern urban centers occupy usually the top of a hill at the base
of which the modern city has been developed. The historical site has the same
characteristics discussed at the previous category. In some cases there is a free zone
between the castle and the urban area, while in others the houses are built in contact
with the ancient walls.
1.3 Problems related to the nature of castles and their state of preservation.
Fortifications pose special and difficult problems even at the stage of documentation
and preparation of the conservation-restoration project.
Due to their great size, the great heights of the walls and towers and the difficult
approach at several parts of the enclosure (ie from the sea), the only suitable method
for the geometrical survey is photogrammetry. But very often even this method
cannot resolve all the problems we confront at a fortified site. In a case of inaccessible
parts of walls photographs taken from a great distance are not suitable for survey
purposes; trees may hide large sections of the structure, and also photographs taken
from a steep angle because of the steep slope of the ground cannot give reliable
measurements.
In the field of architectural – historical investigation special difficulties occur because
of the complex character that obtain a castle as a structure, after centuries of
successive repairs and modifications. Inscriptions are rare, and if any they are related
to gates and towers of major construction phases. For the rest extend of the walls it is
very difficult to establish a secure relative chronology for all the different phases of
the hole enclosure because the criterion of the masonry (type of masonry), that is very
important and reliable factor in other kind of monuments, is of little help in the case
of fortifications. The fact that castles have a mere utilitarian nature and their original
structure, and of course their repairs and modifications, use very common and simple
forms, local materials, simple types of masonry and no decorative elements, makes
difficult the identification of the date of the different construction phases.
In most cases the perimeter of the fortified enclosure survive only partially and in a
ruinous state, while the structures and the general arrangement of the interior space
cannot even be recognized as a result of extensive earth filling and vegetation. Long
term excavations are required in order to uncover the remains of the main public
buildings and roads that could clarify the plan of the settlements within the walls and
its function. Apart from the historical events that took place in the area, a castle
remains obscure and silent as a structure to the public in regard with its own particular
history, until the day excavations and restoration works give a clear shape to the site
and architectural investigations relate structures with historical events.
The usual structural damage encountered in castles is related to the quality of their
masonry and problems of soil or foundations.
Fortifications of early medieval period are built with rubble masonry of great
thickness. At the earlier examples up to the 6th-7th century walls consist of alternative
horizontal zones of stonework and brickwork, while at the middle or late Byzantine
period of rubble stonework with scattered pieces of bricks between the stones or mere
stone work.
The typical construction consists of two carefully built faces of the wall and a rather
loose infill in-between of irregular stones with a great quantity of lime mortar. In the
cases the structure includes horizontal bands of bricks, the brick layers go through all
the thickness of the walls connecting its two faces at vertical intervals of about 11,5m. This connection offers a better cohesion and strength to the wall. In the walls
built of mere rubble stone masonry this connection is some times achieved by timber
ties, but usually it is weak or almost absent resulting at a lower strength and cohesion
of the structure. As a consequence the most often damage we see are extend collapse
of the outer skin of the curtain walls, leaving deep cavities that minimize the thickness
and the bearing capacity of the masonry. The exposed weaker core of the walls
deteriorate fast and the hole wall is in a danger of total collapsing. As a rule these
damages start from the base of the walls and they are related to a parallel
underpinning of the foundations. Castles being usually built at the very edge of the
slopes of hills for defense reasons lack of adequate and solid foundations, while at the
same time they are submitted to foundation settlement because of earth slopping or
earth erosion by the sea waves at maritime fortresses.
Problems due to soil movements, apart from the local collapsing mentioned above,
cause very severe cracking and leaning of immense masses of walls out of vertical
position. In these cases remedial proposals have to be based on extend soil
investigations and geotechnical projects for consolidating the ground, which usually
requires large scale interventions with deep pilling at sloping ground, at the seashore
or under the sea. These are the most severe and difficult problems we confront with
consolidation of fortifications, and of course the most expensive interventions, so that
up today in no case have works of this nature and scale been undertaken.
Consolidation and restoration of fortifications have been restricted in the common
conservation works, pointing and local rebuilding of walls, crenellations and gates,
and neither is likely to be undertaken in the near future.
2.
Restoration and upgrading of fortifications
2.1 Principles of restoration
Preservation of the structure’s originality, identification and preservation of the
different structural phases, distinction of new interventions in a way respecting the
unity and aesthetic appearance of the monument are the standard requirements of a
respectful restoration. In the case of castles as in any archaeological site we must put
an emphasis on an other basic requirement that is the legibility of the historical
complex. Visitors of the type of fortifications we are dealing with are rarely expecting
to find works of art at the site; perhaps only some churches with wall paintings, in the
case of fortified citadels. What they need is to recognize the basic structures of the
fortified site, their function and the way they are organized. It is important for them to
understand the extend of the walled enclosure, the system of defense, the form of the
gates the use of brattices and the barbican in front of them, the special arrangement of
the adjacent towers, the crenellated parapet along the wall walk, the types of
loopholes, the towers, embrasure niches and their function. It is also interesting for
them, observing the surviving evidence of the different historical phases, to
understand the potential modifications that took place in the defensive system of the
castle because of the evolution of weapons (introduction of firing guns) and the
system of war.
For this reason conservation has, for educational purposes, to restore the ruins at a
necessary and adequate degree in order to enable people of all ages to “read” the
structures using their imagination.
Respect of the originality of the historical structure demands the distinction of new
interventions from the ancient walls, as well as preservation and revealing of the
historical evidence. The different construction phases should be recognized and when
repaired their original characteristics (such as type of masonry, color and texture of
mortar, type of pointing), should be carefully repeated, otherwise conservation will
confuse the historical evidence. Mortar is a significant factor because the masonry of
the fortifications we discuss contains a great amount of mortar as binding material and
as pointing of the wide joints. Mortar does not only affect the total strength of the
structure but also characterizes the aesthetic appearance of the monument with is
color, texture and form. A simple re-pointing with an inappropriate mortar can destroy
the original character of the old masonry.
Restoration of lost parts, small or large, follows the same principles as for the works
of art. Small lacunae can be restored without a strong distinction that could interrupt
the aesthetic unity of the historic structure, but large areas of loss have to be clearly
distinguished, though always in a way that does not cause a negative esthetic or
misleading effect. There are many methods for doing so and the choice depends on
the special characteristics of the case. Reconstruction of lost areas of simple walls of a
large scale can be satisfactorily distinguished by a slight recess of the surface of the
new wall, while the use of a different type of masonry is usually confusing, since it
can be regarded as an other old construction phase. This method is not suitable for
more articulated elements as gates, crenellations, brattices ect, because can lead to a
confusing result; in stead a discrete distinction of the separation joint, using a bronze
rib or wide joint is better accepted.
2.2 Priorities and stages of interventions
4. Platamon castle, the program of recent archaeological investigation,
restoration and developing interventions
Platamon castle was one of the fortified Middle Byzantine cities that were built on
naturally fortified sites to control major roads. Archaeological evidence reveal that the
city was inhabited since the 10th century, the period 1204-1224 was under the Franks
and after 1386 under the Turkish rule.
It stands on the route between Macedonia and Thessaly via the narrow valley of
Tempe and was the most important fortress controlling the entrance of the
Thermaikos golf, and the city of Thessaloniki. Ancient sources and recent excavations
locate the ancient city of Heracleion here, a city which existed until the Early
Christian period.
The entire polygonal walled circuit of the castle has been preserved, reinforced by
eight four-sided towers. On the south west side, where the rocky terrain is more
elevated, is located the separately walled quadrangle of the citadel, to which an
octagonal keep (central tower) with its own enciente was added later on. The castel
wall was not demolished in the period of Ottoman rule, as happened to other fortress
cities; It was reinforced, instead, and repaired many times to provide a defense against
raiders and chiefly pirates.
The Archaeological Service carried out rescue restorations between 1968 and 1975.
Excavations inside the castle began in 1989, and more systematic restoration of the
walls, gates and towers, as also development of the interior of the castle began in
1990. The last years, as a result of the construction of a new railroad track, which had
to pass under the hill trough a subterranean tunnel, an extra big budget was given for
the stabilization and restoration of the fortifications.
Excavations to date have uncovered the remains of two churches near the north –east
and east parts of the city walls, out of the seven existing according to the legend, as
well as the ruins of several dwellings. The excavations have revealed the ancient
streets, which are paved with rubble stones, and are systematically conserved and
restored. Paved courtyards flank the entrances to the dwellings.