362 Georgopoulou
Free standing towers on mainland Greece and forts along the coasts of Crete
(like the impressive Frangokastello on south-western Crete, (Figure 10.15) have
been a recognisable feature of the landscape but their primary function is still
debated. Frankish towers did not police routes but rather stood as strongholds
built against raids. They were probably the residential and administrative
headquarters of particular fiefs associated with villages within the lordship of
regional barons or used for communication.102 John Bintliff has studied the
architecture of the isolated towers and has proposed a date that indicates pre-
cannon warfare with rudimentary defences and arrow-slits.
Αθηναϊκής Ακρόπολης κατά τον Μεσαίωνα [The Propylaea of the Athenian Acropolis during the
Middle Ages], 2 vols. (Athens, 1997).
102 Andrews, Castles of the Morea; Peter Lock, “The Frankish Towers of Central Greece,” in
The Annual of the British School at Athens 81 (1986), 101–23; idem, “The Medieval Towers
of Greece: A Problem in Chronology and Function,” in Latins and Greeks in the Eastern
Mediterranean after 1204, ed. Benjamin Arbel, Bernard Hamilton, and David Jacoby
(London, 1989), pp. 129–45; David Nicolle, Crusader Castles; and John Bintliff, The
Complete Archaeology of Greece, p. 419.
figure 10.15 Frangokastello (Crete).
Photo: Olaf Tausch