//
The wooden bridge connected the city with its port. The river Strymon was probably navigable at this time. It was built outside the city walls and was flooded during floods.
It was built in the 3rd century. Its construction suggests that it was a public building. The previously uncovered part of the villa was built around an atrium, which was covered with rectangular marble slabs. The walls of the rooms were plastered and painted with colored geometric patterns. The found mosaics (partly on display in the museum) are of particular interest.
There is no information about the construction of the tower, but most likely it was built around the same time as the tower of Marmari, in the 14th century.
The tower is not mentioned in Byzantine or other historical sources. It is known that a Proastion (settlement) existed in this area, which was granted to the Chilandar Monastery on Mount Athos by Emperor Andronicos II. Palaiologos in 1299. So this was most likely a monastery tower similar to the towers of Chlakidiki, the purpose of which was to protect and serve the various dependencies of the monasteries of Mount Athos. The type of construction and what little we know about the history of the area date the tower to around the mid-14th century.
The ruins of a tower are in the village. The tower is known as the Tower of Maro or the Tower of Kyra-Maro. Maro was a princess of Greco-Serb origin who was born in 1418. At the age of 17 she married the Sultan of the Ottomans Murat II and became the foster mother of the next Sultan Muhamed II, the conqueror. She was very powerful and intervened in religious and political affairs many times. Towards the end of her life she withdrew here and lived in this tower. She had a large property (approved by the Sultan). When she died, her fortune was inherited by monasteries on Mount Athos.
The tower dates from the first half of the 14th century. On the same hill, below the tower, there is a chapel built into a rock in the immediate vicinity of the tower. The chapel is dedicated to Agia Marina.
In the Classical Period, as well as in the Roman and Byzantine periods, Amfipolis was the urban center of the region of the Strymon River Delta. During the Ottoman occupation, the city gradually lost its importance and business activity shifted to Marmario, while military control was concentrated in the modern village of Orfanio, where a small fortress was built. This small fortress to protect the delta was likely built in the 18th century or maybe earlier.