Redina Castle
The Redina Castle is a city- castle of the middle and late Byzantine period.
Modern and Contemporary era (1912 - )
Ottoman era (1453- 1912)
Byzantine era (331 AC- 1453)
After the Byzantine civil wars, it was successively occupied by Serbs (1345), Greeks (1371), Turks (1383), Greeks (1402) and Ottoman Turks (around 1423), when the abandonment of the castle gradually began.
450 AD The first fortification took place after the settlement of the inhabitants of the city of Arethousa, which was destroyed 4 times by the Goths, 1 by the Visigoths and 2 by the Heruli.
1204 Occupied by Frankish crusading knights.
Roman era (30 BC- 330 AC)
Hellenistic era (322- 31 BC)
Classical era (478-323 BC)
Archaic era (800-479 BC)
Geometric era (-1100- 800 BC)
Prehistory (-1100 BC)
The hill was inhabited from the Neolithic era until the late Byzantine period.
What I can see
The Byzantine castle consists of a fortified enclosure with towers, a citadel that is located at the highest point of the hill and in the centre of the hill there was a three-aisled basilica. The residential area was between the citadel and the enclosure. There were two more churches, one cruciform of the Paleologos dynasty period and a southwestern church, near the central gate. There were also 3 cisterns, workshops (on the west side) houses and cemeteries within the enclosures of the churches. For now, the archeological site is closed to the public and is under partial restoration.
What I can't see
It was a key castle for controlling the passage between central and eastern Macedonia, but also between Thessaloniki and Constantinople (Istanbul). It was also the centre of the ecclesiastical organization of the area during the Byzantine years (episcopacy headquarters in 900 AD). In order to build a castle, there had to be sufficient drinking water and this was among the basic preconditions of the defense policy of the Byzantine Empire. The most serious fortification took place during the reign of Emperor Justinian (527-565) and the fortress was named Artemision. It received suffocating pressures from Slavic invasions (6th-7th century). In the 10th century, walls and towers were repaired, a hidden tunnel was constructed, and comprehensive and extensive restorations and constructions of buildings took place. During the Byzantine civil wars, it was a castle of strategic importance for the warring parties and after their end, especially during the Palaeologian period, it experienced great growth, traces of which we see to this day.
Bibliography
https://parallaximag.gr/featured/vyzantino-kastro-rentinas-enas-simantikos-archaiologikos-choros-se-pliri-apaksiosi
Last visit 21/2/2021
Informative inscription of the Museum of Byzantine Culture of Thessaloniki
