Another day, another Greek fortress, or so it seems. We had reached Methoni, our final new destination in Greece. It’s been a great summer, but we need to head off to Malta soon, and the prevailing winds from the west/northwest make leaving from further north a better option. Plus, we need to get our passports stamped out, and we know Argostoli can do it, we’re not sure about other locations in the Peloponnese.
Methoni looks like one giant fortress with a little village appended to it as you sail in. You anchor in the bay right under the fortress, it’s absolutely gorgeous. This was one of the staging posts for the route of commercial shipping, along with pilgrims heading off to the Holy Land.
There’s not much to town, it truly is a place where locals come to holiday. The restaurants were your basic Greek tavernas, but the weekend crowd was infectious and we found ourselves hanging out at a couple of different bars, enjoying the local scene.
The fortress is simply massive. Occupying nearly 10 hectares, the site was fully developed under Venetian rule, and of course later occupied by the Ottomans.
When you enter the site, you cross over a bridge supported by fourteen arches. You then come into what was once the enclosed village. Unfortunately many buildings inside the settlement were destroyed by the French in the 1800’s, when they built a village outside of the fortress, but couldn’t get anyone to move.
At the southern end stands the Sea Gate, which opens up to a stone bridge (no railings!) that leads to the Bourtzi, an isolated small fortress, where the locals were slaughtered by the Turks in 1500.
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