First Period of Venetian Rule

After the dividing up of the lands of the Byzantine Empire by the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade and the ceding of the Aegean islands to the Venetians, Venice entrusted the rule of Lemnos to the Venetian patrician Filocalo Navigajoso. Filocalo settled on the island in 1207, taking the title of Grand Duke, and chose Myrina as his seat. This move boosted the city’s importance, with consequent development of commerce and the creation of a marketplace on both shores, on either side of the peninsula. Trade, however, was in the hands of the Venetians, while the islanders were obligated to pay heavy taxes, had no privileges and freedoms, and were exposed to all manner of pillaging, as well as the peril of being taken captive by the Ottomans and pirates, who invaded the island unhindered from time to time.

The presence of Venetians on Lemnos was not unprecedented. Venetian merchants on the island are attested from the twelfth century. In an official document of 1136, it is declared that the then Archbishop of Lemnos gave a permit to the Venetians settled in Kotsinas to build next to its castle a church dedicated to Saint George. 

Although Venice itself was not protected by walls, the Venetians took care to construct robust fortifications to protect their possessions far away from the Serenissima from enemy attacks. This practice made a great and valuable contribution to the development of fortification architecture. Nonetheless, the Venetians preferred to conquer strongholds and to adapt them to their own needs, instead of constructing fortifications from scratch. Because the fortifications frequently developed on top of ancient acropolises, large quantities of building material were taken from the ancient ruins and the later Byzantine constructions, as well as generally from material available close to hand. Most of the preceding Byzantine castles were repaired extensively and new additions made to them. 

The castle of Myrina acquired its present aspect during the years of Venetian rule. In planning their own fortifications, the Venetians did not consider as important the south terrace of the peninsula, which had been walled in antiquity and included the Classical city. They shifted the fortification northwards, including in their plan the central terrace of the peninsula, to the north of the acropolis, presumably because it facilitated the construction of other ancillary buildings. In their construction they preserved some parts of the earlier Byzantine fortification of Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos, as well as the line of the ramparts of the Classical acropolis, undoubtedly making the appropriate modifications and repairs. 

During the administration of the first duke of the castle, Filocalo Navigajoso, from 1207 until 1214, in his efforts to construct fortification works all over the island the fortress on the acropolis was reconstructed and the peninsula was fortified all round with high walls and towers. On Filocalo’s death, one of his sons, Leonardo Navigajoso, inherited half of Lemnos and the castle. Leonardo governed from 1214 until 1260 and completed his father’s project of reinforcing and strengthening the castle. From this period the castle begins to be referred to as Palaiokastro (= Old Castle), to distinguish it from the later castle at Kotsinas. 

After Leonardo’s death in 1260, authority passed to his son Paolo Navigajoso. During his administration many fortification works were constructed at critical points on the island and very probably the fortifications of the castle of Myrina were reinforced too. When the Emperor of Byzantium Michael VIII Palaiologos, after the recapture of Constantinople from the Crusaders in 1261 and the refounding of the Byzantine Empire, decided to take back all the islands in Venetian hands, he sent Admiral Lykarios to capture Lemnos. In 1276, Lykarios captured a large part of the island and laid siege to the castle of Myrina, where Paolo had holed up, determined not to surrender it. The Grand Duke defended the castle staunchly and refused any negotiation and ransoming of the fortress, but in 1277, during the siege, he died. Nonetheless, defence of the castle was continued just as obdurately by his widow. In 1279, however, due to the significant reduction in funding and the lack of outside help, she was forced to hand it over to the Byzantines, even so on favourable terms for her, and allowed to leave. The handing over of the kastro brought the end of the Duchy of the Navigajoso family and the longest domination of Latins on Lemnos. The castle passed once again to the Byzantine Empire, under the sovereignty of which it remained until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.

During this First Period of Venetian Rule, the fortification of the kastro comprised two lines of walls and encompassed, together with the citadel, the central uppermost terrace of the peninsula (the north outer wall is a later construction). The space of the central gate consisted of two passages at right angle and two gateways, which means that the present intermediate gateway was the central gate of this period and the space now occupied by the central external gate with the towers was exposed. To the east of the castle, the Venetians had dug a moat, for defensive reasons, which was filled in with earth during the early years of the period of Ottoman rule.