On the far eastern part of the island of Lemnos, in the bay of Plaka village, there lies the "cape" of Paleokastro or Vriokastro. You can get there through the dirt road from the village of Plaka. In that cape, in 1459 Kritovoulos from Imbros landed and expelled the Venetians from the island. In 1521, the Turkish admiral Piri Reis named it "Burun Hisãr", (literally the Castle of the Cape). He found it deserted because the inhabitants had resettled in Palaiokastro Myrina during the reign of Bayezid II (1481–1512).
This fortress was located at a tiny peninsula east of the village next to an old port. The ruins are now known as Palaiokastro or Vriokastro (Βριόκαστρο). As Vriokastro it is found in the maps of Conze (1858) and Fredrich (1904). Conze found it ruined. There were many cisterns in the internal, one of these still strong, and in a wall he found an ancient inscription. The area around Plaka was at first a seasonal dwelling for inhabitants of Agios Ypatios and Palaiopoli (Hephaestia) who had farmland in the area. After 1823 several farmers began to live there permanently and established a settlement. Conze who visited the area in 1858 found only a few isolated huts, therefore he did not mark the village in his map. He found though a few people who led and guided him to Vriokastro. It was first mentioned as a village at the 1863 census: it had 60 families and the settlement was referred to as Plaka or Neochorion.