Situated on the road to Aghia Pelaghia, a few Kms northwest of Herakleion, and a short distance from the charming village of Rogdia, the name means “old castle” and this is one of several so-named castles on the island. Another which was originally Genoese built, and of especial interest to the historian, as it was here that Enrico Pescatore left the island in 1211, having come to an arrangement with the Venetians, which saw him, considerably richer, and Venice at last gain control of the island they’d bought in 1204. What we see now is almost all from the last century of the Venetian period, having been rebuilt on three levels by Latino Orsini, as the ever-increasing threat from the Ottoman empire, became ever so increasingly real.
