Castle of Akrotiri

This guide to the Castle of Akrotiri in Santorini describes a fortress with no real wall, just two hundred villagers' houses locked shoulder to shoulder in a ring around the central Goulas tower, their blank stone backs and single narrow gate serving as the island's defense. It follows how ordinary bakers, fishermen and goat-herders took turns manning that gate, keeping a vat of oil simmering for unwelcome visitors, while escape tunnels ran out beneath their homes toward open ground. For roughly four centuries under Venetian rule this crowded ring of homes held firm, later passing to a Bolognese family named Gozzadini.