The Peloponnese
We’ve compiled the best of the best in The Peloponnese - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in The Peloponnese - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Looming some 540 meters (1,772 feet) above Ancient Corinth, the Acrocorinth is one of the best naturally fortified citadels in Europe. Citizens retreated in times of invasions and earthquakes, and armies could keep an eye out for approaches by land over the isthmus and by sea from the Saronic Gulf and the Gulf of Corinth. The moat and three rings of wall are largely Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian, and Turkish—but the right-hand tower of the innermost of the three gates is apparently a 4th-century BC original. Corinth's famous Temple of Aphrodite, which had 1,000 prostitutes in attendance, stood here at the summit, too. On the slope of the mountain is the Sanctuary of Demeter, which you can view but not enter. Take the road next to the ticket office in Ancient Corinth; if you don't have your own car, you can hire one of the taxis that often wait for visitors for the trip up to the tourist pavilion and café (about €5 round-trip), from which it's a 10-minute walk to Acrocorinth gate.
The Turks called this imposing hilltop of ruined fortifications Its Kale (Inner Citadel). The heights are crowned with a series of castles: a Frankish one on the eastern end of the hill, a Byzantine one on the west, and a massive Castello del Torrione (or Toro for short), also at the eastern end, built by the Venetians around 1480. During the second Venetian occupation, the gates were strengthened and the huge Grimani bastion was added (1706) below the Toro. The Acronafplia is accessible from the west side via the elevator next to the Nafplia Palace hotel, which sits on the ruins of the Frankish fort, and from the east via Potamianou Street, whose flights of steps ascend the hillside from St. Spyridon Square. The remains of the fortifications can be explored free of charge on overgrown sections that provide stupendous views over Nafplion and the sea.
While following the seaside promenade, before you reach the very tip of the peninsula (marked by a ship's beacon), there is a little shrine at the foot of a path leading up toward the Acronafplia walls above. The tiny church of the Virgin Mary, or Agia Panagitsa, hugs the cliff on a small terrace and is decorated with icons. During the Turkish occupation the church hid one of Greece's secret schools.
The oldest church in Kalamata is the small 13th-century Agioi Apostoli ("Holy Apostles"), dedicated to the Virgin of Kalamata ("of the good eye"), from whom the town may get its name. The Greek War of Independence was formally declared here on March 23, 1821, and a celebration is held at the church on that date every year. Even the square on which it lies, Martiou 23 (March 23rd), is named after this historic moment.
Another way to approach the gorge walk is to start among the ruins of Ancient Gortys, 1.5 km south of Timou Prodromou Monastery. Little is known about when this city was built, but by the 4th century BC it was in its pomp, and its name was acclaimed across Arcadia. Many of the fragments of its defensive enclosures, baths, public buildings, and its temple to Asklepios date from this era.
This small, well-organized collection is shown to advantage in the city's rebuilt 18th-century market hall. On display are local stone tools, proto-Geometric and Geometric pottery, and a 1st-century AD Roman mosaic floor depicting Dionysus with a panther and a satyr.
You can observe Greek life in the squares in the center of town, especially Areos, one of the largest platias (central squares) in Greece and definitely the place to while away the time if you're marooned in Tripoli. At its center stands a statue of Theodoros Kolokotronis, the revered Arcadian general who helped liberate the country from the Turkish yoke. His bones are buried at its base, having been moved there from Athens in 1930. One story goes that in 1942 the invading Italian army smashed open the tomb and scattered his remains to keep the town in line. Appalled, the town's mayor and his 13-year-old son risked death to collect them up in a sugar bag, so they could be later replaced.
This in-town swimming spot is not really a beach but a seaside perch of smooth rocks, pebbled shoreline, and concrete platforms, all backed by fragrant pines. This is a good place for a morning wake-up swim or a refreshing plunge after a day of sightseeing. At times the popular and well-maintained spot, with a pleasant beach bar, seems as sociable as the town square, so don't be surprised to hear other bathers gossiping and exchanging recipes as they bob in the delightful water. You can walk to Arvanitia by following the seaside promenade that hugs the cliffs beneath the Acronafplia south of town. Amenities: food and drink; parking (no fee); showers; toilets. Best for: swimming.
Nafplion's pocket-size fortress is a captivating presence on a speck of land in the middle of the harbor generously called St. Theodore's Island. The Venetians completed a single tower in 1473, and they enlarged it with a second tower and bastion when they recaptured Nafplion in 1686. Freedom fighters captured the Bourtzi during the War of Independence in 1822 and used the island to bombard the Turks defending the town. The new Greek government retreated to the island in the unsettled times following the revolution; after 1865, the fortress was the residence of the town executioners. Boats leave on no fixed schedule from the eastern end of Akti Miaouli for €5; at the time of writing, ongoing works on the castle meant that access to the fortress continues to be partly restricted.
In the 19th century King Otho returned this 13th-century landmark, restored and converted into a mosque under the Turks, to Nafplion's Catholics. The church is best known for the wooden arch erected inside the doorway, with the names carved on it of philhellenes (Greek admirers) who died during the War of Independence (Lord Byron is number 10). A mihrab (Muslim prayer recess) behind the altar and the amputated stub of a minaret are evidence of the church's use as a mosque. The church has a small museum and an underground crypt in which can be found sculptural work commemorating the defeat of the Turks at the hands of the Greeks and philhellenes.
This post-Byzantine three-aisle basilica is by tradition linked to St. Anastasios, a Nafpliote painter. Anastasios was supposedly engaged to a local girl, but he abandoned her because she was immoral. Becoming despondent as a result of spells cast over him by her relatives, he converted to Islam. When the spell wore off, he cried out, "I was a Christian, I am a Christian, and I shall die a Christian." An Ottoman judge ordered that he be beheaded, but a Turkish mob stabbed Anastasios to death. His corpse was then allegedly hanged on an ancient olive tree that rises next to the church and that never again bore fruit. The basilica was the main Orthodox church during the Venetian occupation and has an elaborate wooden reredos carved in 1870.
Remains of the classical city are scattered throughout the modern one, and you can see in a small area the extensive ruins of the Roman bath, odeon (a roofed theater), and agora, or market. The theater is especially striking, and its well-preserved seats climb a hillside.
Manuscripts, a 35,000-volume library, and other artifacts here are from surrounding churches, monasteries, and the School of Greek Letters that flourished in Dimitsana in the 19th century. The school educated Germanos, a bishop of Patras, and other young men who went on to become Greek scholars and church leaders.
Above the harbor at the western edge of town are the ruins of a fortification known as the Five Brothers, the only remaining part of the lower wall built around Nafplion in 1502. The name comes from the five guns placed here by the Venetians around 1690; they remain in place, all bearing the winged lion of St. Mark.
A sand-and-pebble beach rings a sparkling cove, where the languid, turquoise waters are perfect for swimming and, with offshore rocky outcroppings, a playground for snorkelers. A swim-through sea cave just off the beach is a perfect retreat in which to float and escape the sun. Amenities: food and drink; parking (no fee); showers; toilets. Best for: snorkeling; swimming.
In the early 13th century William de Champlitte divided the Peloponnese into 12 baronies. He bestowed Kalamata on Frankish knight Geoffrey de Villehardouin, who built a winter kastro. Through the centuries the castle was bitterly fought over by Franks, Slavs, and Byzantines, and today it's difficult to tell what of the remains is original. From Martiou 25 Square, walk up Ipapandis past the church, take the first left at the castle gates, and climb the small hill; the views of the town, coast, and the Messinian plain are lovely.
This long, sandy stretch backed by a pine forest and a grassy plain where cattle graze is much favored by Patras residents on weekends and in August. Bracing winds that can whip up a wild surf don't seem to deter beachgoers and are a boon for windsurfers. A river behind the beach forms estuaries that are great for bird-watching. People swim in them as well, but you may feel like Hercules if you are joined by yard-long snakes (they are nonvenomous). Amenities: food and drink; parking (free); showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: swimming; walking; windsurfing.
The closest sandy beach to Nafplion, Karathona is easy to reach by road (just keep following 25 Maritou Street) or a pleasant walk first along the seaside promenade and then a dirt track (you can also get there by bus in summer). The pine-backed sands are favored by Greek families with picnic baskets, and this is an ideal spot for kids, since the waters remain shallow far out into the bay. Sun loungers and umbrellas are available for rent, though a pine grove behind the sands provides plenty of nice shady spots. Several tavernas back the beach. Amenities: food and drink; parking (no fee); showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: swimming; walking.
Exit the Eastern Wall gate to reach Monemvasia Lighthouse, a clean-cut innocuous building erected in the late-19th-century. The beacon contains a small museum (free; open daily) about its history; it is also the start of a 2 km (1.2 mile) rocky path that skirts the northern rim of the island (follow the red trail marks) back to the car park next to To Kastro café. It's a testing scramble in parts, and one best avoided on a windy or wet day.
On the main square stands the town's 13th-century Church of Elkomenos Christos, reputedly the largest medieval church in southern Greece. Carved peacocks on its portal are symbolic of the Byzantine era; the detached bell tower—like those of Italian cathedrals—is a sign of Venetian rebuilding in the 17th century. Sculptures from the church, together with other interesting finds from excavations around the island, are held across the square in the town's Archaeological Collection (€3; closed Tues.), a small, interesting museum housed within an 16th-century former mosque. Outside, a canon dominates the square, typically forming a backdrop to the many selfie-ing couples.
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