antimachia castle

Antimachia Castle is well worth a visit easily accessible from Mastichari and Kardamena. Would advise wearing walking shoes/trainers as there are quite a lot of steps and rough ground. The views are breathtaking and the site is not commercial, walk to far end and you will find a small church with wonderful fresco.

tip for walkers - if you stay in Kardamena, you can make nice halfdaywalking trip to Antimachia castle, medieval ruin with great view over the central part of Kos island. the route is completely unsigned, but you can easily follow the old broken dusty road from centre, pass carefour supermarket and go further in direction to centre of island. on the first t-junkction turn right, follow the old road to the last village houses, here turn left in another t-junkction, pass small pasture and two or three agricultural storage buildings. here starts the EU magic. on the right you see a big EU sign written only in Greek, without marking any direction or target, and a really good stone route (probably best in the island), too wide for walkers, too narrow for cars... just use is and you easily reach the castle. probably you do not meet anybody, neither see any litter along, as from no end of the excellent "EU" path is any sign of direction and it is not obvious from the Castle that the path heads to Kardamena either.

Built by Knights of St. John, this is more like a fortress. Actually, story tells it was their prison. More likely, it was the fortress on top of the hill, sort of a huge deposit box for their treasure. Strategically positioned, it has view to all sides, and as such, was easier to defend. However, not much remained for modern day conquerors (tourists) to see. Exterior fortifications and couple of inside walls and two little later-dated churches are all onsite, but worth seeing.Note to greek tourist and traffic authorities:better road signage would help. Really.

nice view but the place is neglected. f you have time you can visit this place but is not enough interesting to get there specialy.

Antimachia Castle is probably the most imposing structure on the Island of Kos. Rising above the modern day resort of Kardamena, it can be seen from the road through the trees. As you take the pot holed road upto the Castle, the sheer size is astounding. At some point a modern kiosk and walkway had been built inside the imposing castle, but probably due to economic problems the only fee is whatever you would like to give the little fella in the Greek national costume who is happy to pose for snaps !!Once inside, unfortunately there is very little of the interior left, and it is very overgrown. There are walkways but be careful of the thorns. It is worth walking around to visit the 2 little chapels and to see the view of Kardamena and beyond. Even though the structures are gone, the ruins give you an idea of the size of the place. I hope that in the future the Greek economy improves and some money can be spent on these monuments.

Been here several times and never get bored! It is reached easily by car from the main road from the Airport towards Kos Town. Turn right at the side of the Army barracks and follow the dusty lane for a mile or so. The castle is surprisingly well kept and in relatively good condition. It is huge!! It was refortified by the Knights of St John in the late 1400's and is still standing. It contains a couple of small churches. I would recommend decent footwear!

We have visited the castle countless times whilst staying at Mark Warner's Lakitira resort, about 90mins walk away. The castle is best approached from Kardamena climbing up a steep purpose-built paved path ( the so-called "yellow brick road" ) either on foot or mountain bike. The base of the path is half a mile north of Kardamena and difficult to find - it is not signposted, but is obvious on satellite mapping. It is clear alot of EU money was spent 10-20 years ago but there is little sign of any subsequent upkeep. The entrance gate and adjoining walls are the best preserved, but once inside its a bit disappointing as there are no remaining buildings. Walking the walls is worthwhile and great views to the east coast and Kardamena. Good place for a picnic. The castle is open, unattended with no facilities and hence free to enter, though we have only been there in may, sep and oct. There is often an old guy in traditional greek dress for you to take photos with, his party trick is to stand precariously on his chair. There are no information boards. The castle could be so much better if some information were provided and the internal grounds excavated, although its current lack of commercialisation adds to its charm. Worth a half day trip. If driving from kos town, dont miss the Peacock Forest just the other side of the airport - a cool forested valley with its own extensive population of wild peacocks and ferral cats.

This is worth a visit if you love history and castles (which I do) It looks impressive when you drive up there but when you get inside it is in ruins and there is no entrance fee or facilities. Vies from mountain top are stunning and there a a couple of pretty churches. A great place to imagine what life was like around c1400 as it must have been a huge place like a fortified village. There was this old guy dressed in traditional Greek costume guarding the entrance. It reminded us of the scene in Indiana Jones Last Crusade with the knight standing guard 'Only the penitent man will pass'. We gave him a few euros and took his picture. Take a bottle of water tough as it gets very hot and it can be windy. Pity they don't make more of it.

This place stands majestically alone at the end of the road. Wear long trousers as the thistle clad pathways will attack your lower legs if you choose to explore. The views from here are outstanding and it remains unspoilt like so much of Greece without any explanation of what who when or why ! A delightful Greek senior man popped up as we arrived at the entrance in full costume and warmly encouraged us to take his photo, almost as if inviting us into his own home and apart from the euro we chose to give him for this 'semi optional' offer, the visit is completely free of charge and worth experiencing if you have a car and are out and about in Kos for the day.

It’s a great building and the outer walls make for a great view when you arrive.You also get great views of the landscape from inside the walls.We arrived via the road, but there is a path from Kardamena to the fortress.Unfortunately this place (too) suffers from no efforts being made to restore or preserve what is left. It’s quite a shame, especially with the frescoes and a few other things that are still there visibly in decay, both due to the tear and wear by time but also because people have no respect for these things. When you enter the castle, you’ll see a ticket booth set aside, indicating that at one time you might have been able to get a little more info about the place. As it is now, you pretty much have to read up on the place yourself. If it’s a result of Greek economy, no wish to preserve history or simply lack of interest from both historians and tourists, who knows, but I personally feel this place deserves some restoration, preservation and more information about the fortress in general and it's place in Kos history (something a la The Castle of Rethymno in Crete).The Fortress of Antimachia is definitely a must do if you are vacationing in Kos, especially since there are relatively few things to see on this small island.It’s a ruin in decay, but none the less very spectacular.Note:If you go there via the road, you pass a somewhat (not to say “very”) run down army base. I was surprised to see how many (older) armoured vehicles they actually have there, but felt it was best to follow directions and not take any photos.We arrived late in the afternoon just as the goat herder brought the animals home. They more or less completely blocked the road, which we didn’t mind as we find it amusing, but you may want to keep the speed down on these smaller roads if you don’t want to discuss the prices of a goat with the farmer. :-)

we cycled down from kos town well worth the trip spent about 2 hours there the castles really big inside theres an old church a few hundred years old great paintings on the walls on the whole well worth a visit

When you visit Kos for vacation it is worth to rent a car and spend at least one day touring the island. And when you drive near the middle of the island, near Kardamena, and you favour natural landscape and historical sites over cosy restaurants then you will love to visit Antimachia Castle.It was still quite hot by the seaside but when we reached the top of the hill we felt a cold strong wind. The place was almost empty and scary. My wife stayed in the car with our 8-month old daughter, and I went up with my 3.5 yr son. That was a good choice, as my boy enjoyed the ruins a lot but it was definitely not suitable for any younger child (strong wind! sharp rocks, dangerous high walls).The road ends with a large parking just below the massive castle outer walls. There are wooden stairs that lead to the inner castle, we passed a ticket boot which was closed, so the access was free, but maybe they sell tickets or offer guide service in high season?After you enter the inner castle the area is rather flat and there are paths to walk among the ruins. It is really large area of broken rocks cut with pathways, I felt like walkin ancient streets (these paths) between just recently crushed buildings - the mostly regular areas of stones, some stones still forming fragments of walls and others looking like they collapsed inside the building. It was late afternoon and the light was amazing, but the wind was cold and strong! We were walking for about half an hour and after I stopped the initial feeling weird in this windy and empty ruis I started sensing the beauty of this place and was regrating that I coulnd not stay there any longer.

...όχι από το μνημείο βέβαια! Αυτό εξακολουθεί να στέκει περήφανο! Ντροπή η εικόνα της εγκατάλειψης που αντιμετωπίζει ο επισκέπτης. Πόρτες ανοικτές, ξεχαρβαλωμένες ξύλινες περιφράζεις, εγκαταλελειμμένα περίπτερα, σπασμένοι φωτισμοί. Πόσο θα στοίχιζε η λειτουργία του ως αρχαιολογικός χώρος άραγε?

Ho visitato il castello quando il tramonto cedeva il passo al crepuscolo. Una struttura imponente e meravigliosa è apparsa davanti ai miei occhi già a qualche centinaio di metri di distanza. Commozione nel pensare alla battaglia di uno sparuto gruppo di greci contro i turchi che vide inspiegabilmente la vittoria dei primi; commovente vedere la buona conservazione esterna, solo dal lato della strada, con i suoi merli e transetti possente; commovente, ma in senso negativo, lo stato di completo abbandono in cui versa: il portone d'ingresso rimane sempre aperto, anche di notte e il monumento rimane alla mercé di chiunque; l'erba cresce alta all'interno; la manutenzione non esiste; la chiesetta aperta è piuttosto disastrata. Perché non lo valorizzano, difendono, salvaguardano e... non lo mettono a sistema, facendo pagare il biglietto d'ingresso?

Durante i nostri spostamenti in scooter scorgevamo dall'alto le mura possenti di questo castello e così siamo andati a visitarlo. esteriormente è molto carino e imponente, e all'entrata si è accolti da un signore in costume tradizionale molto simpatico....peccato che una volta entrati ci si ritrova in una struttura completamente abbandonata con vegetazione incolta, e due chiesette, una solamente aperta. Si gode di una bella vista sulla costa e sull' entroterra che trasmette molta tranquillità. Peccato per lo stato di abbandono in cui si trova, ma merita comunque una visita.