Castle of Pyrgos Kallistis

This guide to the Castle of Pyrgos Kallistis in Santorini opens at the Porta, the single fortified gate into this walled hilltop village, and the hidden chute above it built to pour boiling oil on pirates around 1580. It follows the watchman's job atop the Goulas tower, part observatory and part warehouse guarding grain for dozens of families, and the villagers who sometimes had to talk raiders out of burning the place rather than fight them. Escape tunnels once threaded beneath these houses, in case the gate above ever failed.