The Tower House (Pyrgos) of Nikolaos Soliotis is a square three-story structure located adjacent to the church of St. George. Its construction testifies to a number of historical forces fundamental to the creation of a Greek vernacular architecture at the turn of the 19th century, including the growing independence of an elected aristocracy and a local craft tradition of masons. The Tower House documents a chapter in Greek urban place-making before the Revolution and before the influence of Athenian neoclassicism.

     Following the Ottoman reconquest of the Peloponnese from the Venetians in 1715, a group of Greek families rose to positions of prominence as administrative intermediaries between the Christian population and the Muslim governors of the 24 districts (kazas)¹. Some 80 to 200 families made up this unique Peloponnesian “aristocratic democracy” that was elected by their respective village assembly. This new social status brought about an innovation in domestic architecture. The new tower houses blended seamlessly in the fabric of the village (democratic) but also stood out (aristocratic). In this respect, they differed from the Ottoman konaki, or plantation home that commanded the feudal plains. The Soliotis Tower House is an extraordinary surviving sample of this domestic type, distinguished by its location, prominence, garrets, and other architectural features. Anyone approaching the village would notice the central dominance of the Soliotis house as it towers above the village.²

     The Peloponnese’s notable families played a central role in the Greek War of Independence, but also suffered in reprisals, as was most likely the case with damages incurred on the Soliotis Pyrgos during Ibrahim Pasha’s raid of Solos in 1826. Tower houses were threatened again after the establishment of the Greek nation, which explicitly sought to undermine the power accumulated by the revolutionary notables in the region. National legislation in 1834 made the erection of new towers illegal and, in cases like the Mani, mandated their demolition. This post-revolutionary civil war led to an unfortunate loss of the country’s architectural heritage.³

     Starting in the 1780s, Solos and its neighboring villages produced a guild of itinerant stone masons that reached national prestige. Celebrated by different names—Varvarites, Kloukinohorites, or Kalavrytes—the stone masons originated from the villages of Solos, Agia Varvara, Peristera, and Mesorrougi. They successfully competed with an older school of masons from Langhadia, that had operated since the 1680s⁴. The earliest documented tower house built by masons of Solos is the Dassaion Archontiko in the village of Ano Trikala, Korinthia. The tower was unfortunately demolished, but the inscription on the quoin was transcribed: “May 7, 1806, Demetrios Anastasios Soliotis.”⁵ As the Solos church of St. George more explicitly testifies in its inscriptions, the highly skilled local masons contributed to a national craft heritage.

     The village of Solos is fortunate to have the Soliotis Tower House survive intact in spite of decades of neglect⁶. Its proximity to the church of Saint George is also unique in constituting an ensemble of private pious donations. Although we do not have an inscription that precisely dates the structure, it likely dates to the first decades of the 18th century. We are also not clear about the degree of damage that the building suffered during the 1826 destruction of the village by Ibrahim Pasha. Presumably, some of the wooden elements were burned and replaced. The ornate iron grill in the lunette window over the entrance and the iron rail of the south balcony illustrate neoclassical influences from Athens from the second half of the 19th century.

     The Soliotis Tower House is built on a steep slope, starting with two stories on the north and descending to three stories in the south. It is constructed of dressed ashlar quoins (cornerstones) at the corners and openings, whose excellent execution highlight the craftsmanship of the famous Varvarites masons. Within the walls, an infill of stones-and-mortar construction is punctuated by openings with limestone lintels (on the first floor) or wooden lintels (on the second floor), both framed by arches. The floors, roof, staircase, door, and window casements are made of wood.⁷

     As in all multi-story houses of this period, the living core of the Soliotis Tower House was on the second floor. The small windows with iron grills on the first floor contrast with the symmetrically arranged large windows on the second floor. This “noble floor” (piano nobile) included a parlor, where the Soliotis family received their guests who, in winter, would gather around the fireplace (on the west side). In the summer, a central balcony on the south side of the Pyrgos afforded guests and family a visual extension to the valley and mountains beyond. Immediately below the eaves of roof and above the balcony, we find evidence of the original exterior plaster that might have once covered the entire wall. The plaster is white and scored with rectangular panels for possible decorations.⁸

     The southern façade should be considered as the main aspect of the house, seen and admired for miles by anyone approaching the village. The windows of this room have two-leaved wooden shutters on the exterior, and glass panels on the interior. The central design feature of the tower house are two circular garrets that extend diagonally at the north-west and south-east corners. The garrets have gunning holes (machicolations) at their lower arcs that signal the defensive character of the house. A third machicolation is found above the main entrance. Further archaeological inspection on the interior floors, should shed some light on how those holes were accessed from the interior to be used with pouring of hot liquids or muskets.

     In its interior, the main parlor is a richly sculpted space, punctured by nooks around each of the windows and with fireplaces with mantles where the family would have displayed its treasures. The grandeur of the room is topped by an ornate ceiling undoubtedly sourced by the chestnut forest that surrounds the village. The ceiling design runs diagonally across the square space with diamond panels and a radial floral disc at the center. The ceiling underscores the diagonal orientation of the two machicolations that contained two additional circular rooms. Finally, the plaster work in the interior has artistic intentions. Linear moldings frame the upper edges of the wall and visually connect the vertical wall-surfaces with the horizontal ceiling-frame. Most importantly, the plaster molding is identical to that of the interior of St. George, suggesting that the same craftsmen may have worked on both structures. Unfortunately, the carpentry on the staircase and railing, as well as the plaster work on the mantles, are in a bad state of preservation and require further study and stabilization.

     The Soliotis Tower House received early scholarly recognition. In 1974, it was declared a protected architectural and historical monument with plans to convert it into a youth hostel and tourist pavilion, but no action was taken. ⁹ An illustration of the tower was featured in the Greek Traditional Architecture series. ¹⁰ It was catalogued by Iordanis Demakopoulos in his study of Peloponnesian tower houses and dated to the 1820s on the basis of the neo-classical arched doorway. ¹¹ It was further mapped in 1995 by the Morea Project, a University of Minnesota survey of 150 villages in Achaia and Eleia (Plate One). The Soliotis Tower House was the oldest and most significant of the twelve houses mapped in Solos and published in Houses of the Morea.¹²