Palaikastro or Palekastro (Greek: Παλαίκαστρο, officially Greek: Παλαίκαστρον), with the Godart and Olivier abbreviation PK, is a thriving town, geographic heir to a long line of settlements extending back into prehistoric times, at the east end of the Mediterranean island Crete.

The Kallikratis Programme implemented starting 2011 made the town into a local community (τοπική κοινότητα, topikí koinótita) under jurisdiction of the next-highest levels, chained as follows: municipal unit (demotike enoteta) Itanos, municipality (demos) Sitia, regional unit (periphereiakes enotetas) Lasithi, region (periphereia) Crete.

[3] At the coast of the town is a 65 m (213 ft) high precipitous promontory called Kastri (Latin castrum, "fort"), which received its name and gave it to the settlement below, Palaikastro ("old fort") in the Middle Ages, when Crete was ruled by the Republic of Venice.

Flat land is totally absent from the promontory, but around the top ridge the Venetians constructed a walled and turreted fort.

By the time the Venetians abandoned it, the use of cannon had nullified most of its defensive value, as the bombardment of the Parthenon at Athens by Turkish ships had demonstrated.

The Turks were not interested in occupying Kastri, and in general, fixed positions today are an easy target for persistent bombardment.

To obtain such a name as "old fort," Palaikastro at the time must have been close to the promontory, in the Bronze Age, most likely at Rousolakkos.

There is some evidence that the Minoans moved around the base, leaving remains even on the light slopes leading up to the promontory.

Even if the population attempted to build housing up the cliffs, as is true of some Greek coastal towns, there would be a rockfall problem.

On the seaward side, the high cliffs with beating waves would have made use of the promontory as a port impossible.