Fodor's Expert Review Castle of Antimacheia

The thick, well-preserved walls of this 14th-century fortress look out over the sweeping Aegean and Kos's green interior. Antimacheia was another stronghold of the Knights of St. John, a military order of crusading monks, whose coat of arms hangs above the entrance gate. After numerous fierce attacks by the Ottoman Turks in the late 15th century, the Knights eventually retreated from Kos in 1523 after the fall of Rhodes to the Turks. Within the walls, little of the original complex remains, with the exception of two stark churches; in one of them, Ayios Nikolaos, you can make out a primitive fresco of St. Christopher carrying the infant Jesus.