Methymna, which in the medieval period was renamed Molyvos, had since antiquity been the island’s second most important city after Mytilene (Mytilini). The castle of Molyvos was built during the Byzantine period at the summit of the hill, ensuring control of the narrow passage to Asia Minor and the Gulf of Adramyttion. In 1128, the Byzantine castle was taken by the Venetians, and from 1204 to 1287 it was in the possession of Baldwin II of Flanders. In the late 13th c., it passed into the control of the Catalans.
In 1373, the Genoan Francesco I Gattelusi, who assumed the rule of the island in 1355 following his marriage to the sister of the Byzantine Emperor John V Palaiologos, rebuilt the castle. The castle’s strategic position and the protection it afforded the settlement at Molyvos harbor, from which the olive and olive oil were transported, were the main reasons why the Gattelusi dynasty took care to maintain the castle in good, battle worthy condition. Turkish incursions multiplied in the 15th c., so the Gattelusi strengthened the castle’s fortifications and opened an underground escape route leading from the castle to the coast. The castle was not destroyed by the Turks when they occupied Lesvos in 1462; rather, it was maintained, strengthened through the installation of a garrison, and expanded.
Its present form is the result of Ottoman repairs and additions in the 15th and 17th centuries, as it was at that time that new ramparts-cannon emplacements were built, and an outwork (proteichisma) constructed on its northern and eastern sides, with the creation of an intervening dry moat. Molyvos is the second-largest castle on Lesvos. It has an irregular, trapezoidal shape; each of its sides is approximately 70 m. long. The chief build- ing material for the walls and buildings was a local grey and reddish trachite. Its southern and eastern sides were founded on bedrock, and the other two sides are less steep. Most of it is built in the pseudo-isodomic masonry system. Large, hewn stones of basalt were employed. The northeast side has more level ground that required the building of taller walls to ensure greater protection. It was protected by ten high towers, square and circular in plan, and a cannon emplacement.
The Akropyrgos (citadel), which has battlements on its interior as well, is on the northeastern side. There are seven bastions in all, four of which are four-sided and three, semi-circular. The first two entrance gates date to the period of Ottoman rule, while the third with its heavy door (no. 5) belongs to the castle’s first phase in the 12th century. The only points showing the extension of the ancient city of Methymna as far as the castle are the stepped crepidomas of the square towers surrounding the acropolis, indicating the earliest phase of the Castle. From the Byzantine period, the inner gate and an underground water cistern with vaulted roof are preserved. A tripartite, domed building is preserved from the Ottoman period. It was used as a prison and gunpowder magazine. Today, it operates as a public information area. Remains of two lodgings for the garrison are discernable in the northern section. At many points, visitors will observe slabs bearing inscriptions or other distinctive marks built into the walls. The function of the castle was purely defensive; residential functions arose to the east, south, and west outside the walls beginning in the medieval period.
