Nauplio City

“Was the first capital of modern Greece, from 1829 to 1834”

Nauplio City is a seaport town in the Peloponnese in Greece that has expanded up the hillsides near the north end of the Argolic Gulf. The town was the first capital of modern Greece, from 1829 to 1834. Nauplio is now the capital of the prefecture of Argolis and the province of Nauplio.

Nauplion Main Sq

The ancient writers make mention of Nauplio City, as an important city, that took part in the Argonautic Expedition and the Trojan War. In the latter, there also participated Palamedes the sage, son to the fifth founder of the city, called also Nauplius. This Palamedes was falsely accused by Odysses of being a traitor and was murdered at Troy, as we learn from the lost tragedy by Euripides, bearing his name. Until the 7th century B.C. Nauplio was a small independent city that had developed along with Mycenae and Argos. During the second Messenian war (middle of 7th century B.C.) the Nauplians had allied with Sparta, Argos’ opponent. This was the reason that the king of Argos Democratidas occupied and devastated Nauplio during this war. The Nauplians moved to Messenia then and the city became Argos’ naval yard and sea port.

It was in the 11th century that Nauplio City rose up again and started acquiring historical importance. Already in the 9th century it had acquired its own diocese that was under the metropolis of Corinth, and its first bishop was St. Peter of Argos. The Byzantine emperors discerned the importance and the mercantile capabilities of the city’s position and so they reinforced it. In 1180 A.D., the Byzantine Emperor Manuel Comnenos appointed Theodore Sgouros, a rich Nauplian, as the ruler of Nauplίο City. His son, Leo Sgouros, turned Nauplio City into an important centre. He fought against the invading crusaders, Montferrat, Champlitte and Villehardouin. Latter occupied the city taking it from Theodore Doukas Comnenos, Sgouros’ Successor. In 1212 Villehardouin conceded the city to Otho de la Roche Master of Athens. The city remained under the administration of the French dukes of Athens for approximately a hundred years and was fortified by them. Subsequently it came into Venetian hands.

Nauplion City

In the years 1396, 1463, 1502 the Turkish attacks were successfully repelled. In 1540 under a treaty the Venetians gave Nauplio City over to the Turks. In 1686 Francesco Morosini the Venetian field marshal, after a 10ng siege occupied Nauplio and started fortifying it. Nauplio then became the capital of the prefecture of Romania and was called Napoli di Romania. The general Augustine Sagredo and the prefect Jeronymus Delphinus completed the fortifying works of the city that had now become

In 1715, after a 10ng siege, Nauplio City came into Turkish hands. The besieger, Daout Pasha, gained entrance to the city, after the treason of Sala, a French artillery colonel fighting at Palamidi. In Αpril 1821 the Greeks started a siege of the city. On November 30, 1822 Palamidi was taken by Staikos Staikopoulos and a little later the city was handed over to Kolokotronis, a Greek hero and leader of the 1821 revolution. At the beginning of 1823 Nauplio was appointed the capital of the Liberation war and the government had its seat there. Then Greeks from all the parts of the country started swarming in. Α vivid picture of the time, with its confusion of different customs and dialects is given in «The Babylonia» by Byzantios. During the civil conflicts the city was the battlefield of the dissenting groups of the Administrative Committee and the Parliamentary one.

Ioannis Kapodistrias, after the liberation, arrived at Nauplio as the Governor of Greece on January 8, 1828. It was here that he set out the plans of the development of the country and it was here that he found a tragic death on September 27, 1831, murdered by two members of the Mavromichalis family, as he was entering St. Spyridon’s church. The 4th National Assembly (1832) approved of the choice of Otho as King of Greece, who came to Nauplio City on January 25, 1833. On December 1, 1834 the capital was transferred in Athens.

Palamidi Castle

Palamidi
Palamidi is a military fortress to the east of the Acronauplia in the town of Nauplio. Nestled on the crest of a 216-metre high hill, the fortress was built by the Venetians during their second occupation of the area (1686-1715).
The fortress was a very large and ambitious project, but was finished within a relatively short period from 1711 until 1714. It is a typical baroque fortress based on the plans of the engineers Giaxich and Lasalle. In 1715 it was captured by the Turks and remained under their control until 1822, when it was captured by the Greeks.
The bastions of the fortress were originally named after the Greek Proveditori. However, when the Ottoman Empire came around, they captured the castle and town and the bastions were given Turkish names. Lastly, when the Greeks overthrew the Turks the bastions were renamed after Greek saints. One of the bastions, called the “Miltiades,” was used as the prison cell of Theodoros Kolokotronis, a hero of the Greek Revolution.
The fortress commands an impressive view over the Argolic Gulf, the city of Nafplio and the surrounding country. There are 857 steps in the winding stair from the town to the fortress. However, to reach the top of the fortress there are over one thousand.

Tyrins

Tiryns
Tiryns was a hill fort occupied from the beginning of the Bronze Age. It reached its heyday between 1400 and 1200 BC. Its most notable features were its palace, its cyclopean tunnels and especially its walls, which gave the city its Homeric epithet “mighty walled Tiryns”. In ancient times, the city was linked to the myths surrounding Heracles, with some sources citing it as his birthplace.
The famous megaron of the palace of Tiryns has a large reception hall, the main room of which had a throne placed against the right wall and a central hearth bordered by four Minoan-style wooden columns that served as supports for the roof. Two of the three walls of the megaron were incorporated into an archaic temple of Hera.
The site went into decline at the end of the Mycenaean period, and was completely deserted by the time Pausanias visited in the 2nd century AD.
Tiryns was recognized as one of the World Heritage Sites in 1999.

Bourdji
At first it was called by the seamen Saint Theodore’s island. During the first Venetian rule (1389 1540), in 1473 to be precise, the Venetians built a tower with guns on it. It was called the Castelli or Bourdji and later Passage. New fortifications were added during the second venetian rule (a tower with a yard and a bastion). Morosini occupied it again in 1686 and massacred the turkish garrison.

Bourtzi

From Bourdji to the waterfront across the sea at nights there used to hang a chain that blocked the harbour. That’s the reason that Nauplio used to be called Porto Catena, the Chain port, during the venetian Empire. In the years of the Revolution, it was called Kastelli or Thalassopyrgos (Sea¬castle). The first attempt to occupy Bourdji, planned by the French Philhellene Boutier, failed. Bourdji was handed over to the Greeks on June 18, 1822 during the siege of the city. From that time it played an important part in the siege, as its guns shot at the castles of Itch- Kale and Palamidi. The Goνernment found refuge in Bourdji for a while in 1826 during the civil war. Bourdji was used as a fort until 1865.
Later it served as the residence of the people who operated the guillotine that had been set up at Alonaki on Palamidi. The first executioner came from Marseilles where the guillotine had been made, but he was soon forced to leave on account of the strong dislike of the people.

Additional Information
Location: 95,00 km from Athens

It is famous about
The first capital of Greece
Venetian fortress of Palamidi
The fortified islet of Bourdji
Ancient city of Tiryns which is one of the World Heritage Sites