The medieval fort of Trikala and the city landmark, the clock tower, opened to the public on Monday after undergoing extensive restoration work. Located at the north end of the city and on top of the farthest hill of the Chasia mountain range, the fort overlooks the city, massive, silent and imposing.

The old fort, which had suffered significant damage, dates back to the Classic and Hellenistic eras and was first restored in the 6th century AD, in the years of Emperor Justinian. It was last repaired by the Turks after the revolutions in Thessaly in 1854 and 1878. Inside the wall surrounding the fort, the Byzantine churches of Archangel Michael and the Transfiguration were built. An underground water-supply reservoir that starts from Kalambaka ends at the third and highest cornice of the fort. In the east side, the city clock-tower, built during the Turkish rule, was replaced in 1936, by another 33-meter-high clock-tower that was bombed during WWII. On the second cornice an open-air theatre hosts cultural events.

Located in the fertile plain of Thessaly in central Greece, modern Trikala is the Homeric Trikka (or Trikki), the birthplace of three of the Argonauts and one of the areas touted as the birthplace of Asclepius (Asklepios), who is more often said to have been born at Epidaurus, where his main temple was sited in antiquity. Ruins of an old sanctuary to the physician-god, an Asklepeion, or healing place, are located between the central square and the church of Saint Nicholas (Agios Nikolaos) in Trikala. It is the oldest Aesculapium of Greece - a kind of medical centre, from which the worship of Aesculapius gradually spread.

Caption: The main entrance of the medievial fort of Trikala, central Greece on Monday 27 April 2009. ANA-MPA/STR