Byzantine Empire 13th – 15th century (1279-1453)
13th century
After the dissolution of the Grand Duchy of Lemnos in 1279, by the Latin admiral of Byzantium Lykarios, Lemnos remained under the jurisdiction of the Palaiologan emperors until the end of the Byzantine Empire. Needless to say, keeping Lemnos in the fold of the Empire was not without difficulties and struggles, not only because the island’s strategic location made it a coveted asset between the conquerors and especially between the Latins and the Ottomans, but also because the Empire itself was weakened by internal rivalries and external attacks, and was incapable of defending its territories. The island suffered many destructions and pillaging to the point of desertion. Its inhabitants lived through many hardships and were taken captive in many assaults, characteristic cases being the raid in 1292 by the admiral of the kingdom of Sicily Ruggero di Lauria, in 1296 by the Venetian Malabranca, and in 1304 by the Catalan Company. In the period 1306-1309 and for a short spell in 1377, the Venetians captured Lemnos and plundered it, while the vulnerable position of the Byzantine Empire, being attacked from all sides, worsened also from the expansion of the Ottomans into its lands. The more the Empire shrank, the more imperative was the need for protection of its islands by maintaining mighty fortresses and an important military force in them. On Lemnos there were castles in several locations – Myrina, Kotsinas, Moudros, Skala (Fisini), Plaka, and elsewhere – while there were look-out towers dispersed all over the island. These fortresses were maintained, repaired and defended by the civilian overlords, the populace and the ecclesiastical foundations.
When the traveller Christoforo Buondelmonti visited Lemnos towards the end of the second decade of the fifteenth century, most probably in 1418, he mentions that there were many fortified towns. This information is corroborated by monastic documents of the period, which reveal that Myrina was counted among the fortified towns.
14th century
In 1361, within the climate of enemy incursions and instability during the reign of Emperor John V Palaiologos, repair works and reinforcements were made to the castle, when Georgios Synadenos Astras was governor of Lemnos. The central entrance to the castle was strengthened by adding to the east a further gate, flanked by towers with crenellations. In this way the present plan of the space of the central gate was formed, which consists of a dog-leg passage comprising three sections and with three portals. According to the date on a marble relief plaque that was incorporated in the counterfort of the east enceinte, inside the space of the central gate and opposite it, other reinforcing interventions were made later, in 1394. The plaque, which is said to have been incorporated in the fortification wall until 1982 (and is today in the Archaeological Museum of Myrina), measures 0.76 x 0.36 x 0.25 m and has at the centre the monogram of the Palaiologi, while to right and left are the letters Θω and Μ, which are interpreted as abbreviations of Theodoros and Manuel, respectively. The type of the commemorative plaque and the details refer to Theodoros Palaiologos (uncle of the then emperor Manuel II Palaiologos), who was governor of Lemnos in 1394, and to Manuel Eskammatismenos, who was possibly in command of the military.
It seems that there was a large-scale programme of reinforcements, at least in the two strongholds of the island, the kastra of Myrina and Kotsinas. According to monastic documents, in 1376 Emperor John V Palaiologos addressed a letter to the priors of the Athonite monasteries, asking them to help in the construction and fortification projects, specifically by sending timber and two master craftsmen. Overseer of these works was Makarios Glabas Tarcheionites, who had been sent to Lemnos to direct the refortification of the kastra of Myrina and Kotsinas. This move reveals how important the Byzantines considered the possession of the castle of Myrina for keeping the island under their control. Possibly during this period, the fort in the north of the peninsula was reinforced further by constructing the north outer wall near the coast, so that there was effectively a triple fortification wall.
15th century
The historian Kritovoulos the Imbrian in his Third Book (85, 2-3), recounting the events of the year 1459, describes the citadel and the castle of Myrina and speaks of the existence of a very old triple fortification wall: ‘Because the acropolis of the city of Myrina, built on a hilltop high above the city, is very well fortified and inaccessible from all round, and from olden times is famed for its security, protected and fortified by a triple very old wall of boulders, has full control and surveillance of the city below’.
The wife of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, Caterina Gattiluso, is buried in the castle of Myrina. She died of pregnancy complications in 1442, during the Ottoman siege of the castle of Kotsinas, where she had sought refuge with the emperor when en route from Mytilene to Constantinople, to avoid the Turkish fleet in the area.
It is said that the so-called gunpowder store to the northeast of the central gate was perhaps her mausoleum, but the truth of this claim can only be documented by excavation and study.
Without doubt some of the marble architectural members we see today built into the fabric of the castle’s fortification walls come from the period of Byzantine rule. As noted in another chapter (Classical – Hellenistic – Roman Antiquity), several foreign travellers, such as Tozer, and archaeologists-historians, such as Sealy and Carl Fredrich, during their visit to the castle in the nineteenth and the early twentieth century had identified and commented on remains, testimonies of the ancient past, such as pieces of marble columns, column bases and other marble architectural members (spolia) built into the fortification walls. The German archaeologist Carl Fredrich, who visited the castle in 1904, had identified in the fortification walls repairs and renovations from Hellenistic, Roman and later times, as well as many marble spolia from antiquity incorporated in the walls.
