A municipality of 34.416 people in western Greece. Missolonghi is known as the site of a dramatic siege during the Greek War of Independence and of the death of the poet Lord Byron. North-west of Missolonghi are the remains of Pleuron, a town mentioned in Homer’s works.
When the Greek War of Independence broke out in spring 1821, Missolonghi joined the uprising on May 20, 1821. Its location made it a vital bastion for the Greeks in the War of Independence. Protected by a chain of small islands and its lagoon from the sea and by a wall and marshy terrain from the landward side,it was strategically located near the Peloponnese and the Ionian islands. The town’s fortification was initially limited to a ditch 2 meters wide and 1.2 meters deep,in many places filled with rubbish, as well as a small wall no higher than a meter, in need of repair with 14 guns.
Due to the heroic stance of the population and the massacre of its inhabitants by the Turkish-Egyptian forces, the town of Missolonghi received the honorary title of Hiera Polis (the Sacred City). The town itself is very picturesque but also modern, with functional,regular urban planning. Some very interesting buildings representative of traditional architecture can be seen. Today, the entrance gate remains intact, as does part of the fortification of the Free-Besieged, which was rebuilt by King Otto. Past the gate there is the Garden of Heroes, where several famous and some anonymous heroes who fought during the Heroic Sortie are buried. Every year, Memorial Day for the Exodus is celebrated on Palm Sunday.
Archelogical museum of Messolongi
In the new order established in the 12th century a new ruling class emerged at the apex of the social and military pyramid that of the elite warriors. They were of higher status than the ordinary arm-bearers in battle as they employed military and political power.
They were buried with the emblems of their office, fully armed with Naue II swords, helmets, spear-points, razors, knives,greaves, helmets, ornaments, and so on, exactly as depicted on pictorial vases. Warrior burials were widely distributed in island and mainland Greece and predominately in Achaea.
In Acrnania the unexpected find of the burial of a valiant warrior sets its seal on the twilight of the Mycenaean age.
To the west of Stratos , at Kouvaras on the pass leading from island to the Ambrakian gulf and Epirus a simple cist grave offered a unique funerary assemblage , so opening up new roads in research.
The grave contained a richly-furnished burial of a male in contracted pose, accompanied by his defensive and offensive weaponry, precious vessels and 4 clay vases. A long sword with a gold wire ornament on the hilt a type F sword and a bimetallic knife both with ivory-sheathed hilt a spear point and arrowhead as well as a pair of bronze greaves. The group of grave goods is completed by a bronze tripod cauldron and a wonderful gold kylix.
The most impressive find in the cemetary is an ensemble of three bronze funerary cauldrons which contained enchytrismoi and preserved their covering textile. The cauldrons had been placed in corresponding cist graves. The first large tripod cauldron contained the burnt bones of a dead dignitary or hero and had been sealed by placing another cauldron upside down on top of it as a lid. The whole unit had been draped with six pieces of cloth of different weave which covered almost the entire surface of the inverted cauldron-cum lid. The charred bones and the iron grave goods inside the vessel had been wrapped in a finely wooven textile.
The second bronze cauldron is plain and was covered with pieces of cloth inside which are burnt bones, likewise wrapped in textiles of different weave and placed inside a small basket woven from twigs. In the third cauldron the deceased was placed in contracted pose and covered with two pieces of cloth. 21 clay vases and iron spearhead were the grave goods.
Nafpaktos
Nafpaktos is a town in Aetolia-Acarnania West Greece Situated on a bay on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth.It was an important Athenian naval station in the Peloponnesian war.As a strategically crucial possession controlling access to the Gulf of Corinth Nafpaktos changed hands many times during the Crusades and the Ottoman-Venetian Wars.Nafpaktos became part of independent Greece in March 1829.The port divides the beachfront in two parts.
The castle of Nafpaktos ows its current form to the Venetians.The fortifications of Nafpaktos start from a hill to the northwest of the modern city and end at the port.It is the result of many different construction phases from antiquity to the period of the Ottoman rule.
The medieval fortification of Nafpaktos had an elongated irregular shape on the northsouth axis with a maximum length of750m and maximum width 365m
It ows its current image to works that were done in different periods for many centuries.Its form in antiquity is not exactly known.It covered a larger area than the medieval one.Remains of the ancient fortification can be seen embedded in the northwest side of the walls.The Byzantine castle must have existed since the beginning of the Byzantine period,but it was certainly rebuilt in the 10th or 11th century when Nafpaktos became the capital of the thema of Nikopolis.That castle was confined to the top of the hill having the lower city and port unprotected.After 1407 when the Venetians occupied the city they redesigned and rebuilt the castle the walls of which were extended to the port while the multiple inner enclosures were created and modern bastions were added.The emblem of Venice the lion of St Mark was embedded in various places and today is preserved in the west tower of the port and in the bastion of the east gate,Faltsoporti.The strongest and highest point of the castle is at its northwestern end,where the citadel is.From there the fortification extends to the south in two arms that end up on the shore enclosing the small Venetian port.
Between the long walls that go down to the sea there are 4 transverse walls that divide the castle into 5 zones,5 internal baileys.The tradesmark of Nafpaktos is the small Venetian port with the two marine bastions at the entrance.This port has been very important.The way it is shaped today has Venetian origins but many of its fortifications are Ottoman such as the turret with the conical hat.In the old days the entrance of the port was closed with a chain from one bastion to another.
0 Comments