Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
incl
ude
en-suite bathrooms, balconies and a/c. April-
Oct.
€40
Mirton
T
27570 51339.
This simple, traditional taverna
serves good Greek food from a standard menu, dishes
ranging €5-15. Wash it down with the local rosé, served
chilled in a terracotta jug, for about €3/litre. Dine inside or
out on the sea-view terrace.
Daily lunch & dinner.
POÚLITHRA
Akroyiali
T
27570 29106,
F
27570 51262.
Spacious,
wood-trimmed studios with balconies fac
ing t
he sea and a
private pebble beach. Breakfast included.
€60
Kyma
T
27570 51250.
Both rooms and self-catering
apartments are available here, in a garden setting 10m
from the sea - relatively lush for this arid region. Facilities
2
The southeastern peninsula: Vátika
The isolated southeasternmost “finger” of the Peloponnese is known as
Vátika
.
It
comprises a dramatic and underpopulated landscape of harsh mountains and poor, dry,
rocky soil. The highlight here is the extraordinarily preserved Byzantine enclave of
Monemvasiá
- an essential visit for any tour of the southern Peloponnese. The rest of
this slim peninsula is little visited by tourists, except for the area around
Neápoli
, the
most southerly town in mainland Greece, which offers access to the islet of
Elafónissos
,
just offshore, and to the larger island of
Kýthira
, lying on the way to Crete.
Monemvasiá
MONEMVASIÁ
, standing impregnable on a great island-like irruption of rock, was the
medieval seaport and commercial centre of the Byzantine Peloponnese. Its modern
mainland service town is called
Yéfira
, from which a 1km
causeway
takes visitors out
to the medieval site. Divided into the inhabited lower town and the ruined upper
town, it's a fascinating mix of atmospheric heritage, careful restoration and
sympathetic redevelopment.
Fortified on all approaches, it was invariably the last outpost of the Peloponnese to
fall to invaders, and was only ever taken through siege. Even today, it differs deeply in
character from the nearby mainland.
Brief history
Founded by the
Byzantines
in the sixth century, Monemvasiá soon became an important
port. It later served as the chief commercial port of the Despotate of Mystra and was for
all practical purposes the Greek Byzantine capital, with a population of almost 60,000.
Like Mystra, Monemvasiá had something of a golden age in the thirteenth century,
when it was populated by a number of noble Byzantine families and reaped considerable
wealth from estates inland, wine production (the Mediera-like
Malvasia
) and from their
own roving corsairs who preyed on shipping heading for the East.
When the rest of the Moreas fell to the Turks in 1460, Monemvasiá was able to seal
itself of, placing itself first under the control of the papacy, later under the
Venetians
.
Only in 1540 did the
Turks
gain control, the Venetians having abandoned their
garrison after the defeat of their navy at Préveza.
Monemvasiá was again thrust to the fore during the
War of Independence
, when, in July
1821, after a terrible siege and wholesale massacre of the Turkish inhabitants, it became the
first of the major Turkish fortresses to fall. After the war, there was no longer any need for
such strongholds and, with shipping moving to the Corinth Canal, the town drifted into a
village existence, its buildings allowed to fall into ruin. By the time of
World War II
only
eighty families remained. Today just a handful of people are in permanent residence, but
much restoration work has been done to the houses, walls and many of the churches.
The rock: medieval Monemvasiá
From mainland Yéfira nothing can be seen of the medieval town itself, which is built
purely on the seaward face of the rock. Nor is anything revealed as you cross the
