Platamon.
Platamon.
MACEDONIA
140
116. Platamon fortress (Πλαταμώνας, το κάστρο)
116.
Platamon.
This small fortified city dominating and controlling the shortest
road leading from Thessaly to Macedonia is built on a hill, on
the site of ancient Herakleia, in the SE foothills of Mount Ol-
ympus. The first reference to the name Platamon occurs in a
chrysobull of 1198 belonging to Emperor Alexius III. Investiga-
tions have shown that the city featured churches with opulent
decoration from the 10th c. From the Byzantine era the outer
walls survive with repairs, as well as the inner walls of the cita-
del, and the octagonal tower, a donjon that has its own enclo-
sure. NE of the city an aisleless church with four earlier phases
has been excavated, surrounded by burials of the 12th-14th c.
and the 16th-17th c. The fortress was repaired by the Franks
immediately after 1204. In 1218 it was occupied by the Despot
of Epirus Theodore Angelos.
