Looking out onto the Aegean Sea from a hill at an altitude of 179 metres, Skyros castle, worn by the passage of time, tells the story of an ancient fortified acropolis, and its king, Lycomedes, who killed the famous Theseus, king of Athens. It also speaks to the Byzantines and Venetians who conquered it, before falling into the hands of the pirate Barbossa in 1537. Currently, the ruins of four towers on the outer wall of the Byzantine castle survive, while visitors also encounter the Monastery of Agios Georgios (St George), the patron saint of Skyros, which was founded in the 10th century by Nikephoros Fokas, and it is a dependency of the Monastery of Agia Lavra of Mt Athos.