Chlemoutsi
The castle Chlemoutsi ( Greek Χλεμούτσι ( n. Sg. ), Italian Castel Tornese , French Clairmont or Clermont , Turkish Holomuç , German also Chlemutzi ) is a high medieval crusader castle in the far west of the Greek peninsula Peloponnese , in the prefecture of Elis . The current name Kastro Chlemoutsi is a Greek form of the Slavic name of the mountain and means "small mountain". Chlemoutsi is one of the largest and best preserved castles in Greece .
location
The Chlemoutsi Castle is in a dominant position on the top of a 250 m high hill on the Kyllini peninsula near the village of Kastro , 80 km southwest of Patras .
history
After the "Latin" crusaders had conquered Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade , the French knights occupied the Byzantine Peloponnese. In 1205 Wilhelm I von Champlitte and Gottfried I von Villehardouin established the Principality of Achaia in the Morea . Between 1220 and 1230, Gottfried I von Villehardouin (according to other sources, Gottfried II von Villehardouin ) had Chlemoutsi Castle built from the proceeds of confiscated church property to defend the neighboring port of Glarentza and Andrèville , the capital of the Principality of Achaia.
At the end of the 13th century the castle came into the possession of the Neapolitan royal family Anjou . Charles II had Margaretha von Villehardouin, the youngest daughter of Prince Wilhelm II von Villehardouin , imprisoned here. She was accused of having established the Catalan Company's claim to the principality by marrying her daughter Isabel de Sabran to Ferdinand von Mallorca . Margaretha von Villehardouin died on Clermont in March 1315.
In June 1315 Ferdinand of Mallorca occupied Clarentza and Clermont Castle for a short time in order to assert his son James III's claim to power . enforce. He was defeated and killed in battle on July 5, 1316 by Ludwig of Burgundy, husband of Mathilde von Hainaut , heiress of the Principality of Achaia and the despotate of Morea . When Louis of Burgundy died in the summer of 1316, Mathilde was the ruler of the Principality for a short time at Clermont Castle. In the same year, King Robert of Anjou had Matilda come to Naples , forcibly married her to his brother Johann von Durazzo (1294–1336), deposed her and threw her into the Castello dell'Ovo.
At the beginning of the 15th century, the castle came into the possession of Carlo I Tocco , the Count Palatine of Kefalonia and despot of Epiros . In March 1428 Constantine married XI. , later the last emperor of the Byzantine Empire , the niece of Carlo Tocco and received as dowry the possessions of the Tocco in the Peloponnese. An inscription at the entrance of the castle says that Constantine resided here from 1428 to 1432 as the despot of Morea.
After the conquest of Constantinople (1453) , the Turks took Chlemoutsi in 1460. They made minor structural changes to ensure the more efficient use of their artillery. During the Turkish-Venetian Wars, the castle repeatedly came into the hands of the other side. The Venetians owned Chlemoutsi from 1687 to 1715 . At that time the castle was called Castel Tornese , under the false assumption that the crusaders had coined the gros tournois here with the image of the basilica of Saint-Martin des Martin of Tours and the inscription G.PRINCEACh and CLARENTIA .
From 1715 to 1821 the Ottomans were again masters of the castle, which however gradually lost its strategic importance due to the introduction of new weapon technologies. During the Greek Revolution it was defended on November 10, 1825 by the inhabitants who fled to the castle against the siege by the troops of the Egyptian general Ibrahim Pasha , who took Chlemoutsi after his cannons had caused great damage, especially on the south side of the outer fortification wall. Ibrahim Pasha had the fortifications partially razed. He stayed in the Peloponnese until October 1828, when he was forced to surrender by the western powers and the peninsula became part of independent Greece.
investment
On a rock that slopes sharply on all sides, a lower outer wall encloses the castle grounds on three sides. Within this, a second high wall secures the hexagonal core castle, which is still preserved with the roof. On the south-western side, the outer and inner ring form a common bastion. The diameter of the plant is about 60 m. It used to be additionally fortified by a circumferential ditch that could be crossed in the northwest by a wooden drawbridge.
The foundation walls of numerous buildings can still be seen on the grounds of the outer bailey, one of which can be dated to the 13th century. The narrow battlement chemin de ronde is still preserved in various places on the outer wall. The masonry consists mainly of quarry stone masonry made of limestone , fired masonry bricks were only used for a few components. All interior rooms have window openings to the inner courtyard. The great hall in the west was 70 meters long. The main hall is on the southeast corner opposite the entrance. The polygonal shape of the inner courtyard can also be found at Krak des Chevaliers , at Château de Boulogne-sur-Mer and in its most perfect execution at Castel del Monte .
Most of the Chlemoutsi Castle has been preserved in its original structure. It is an important example of the French fortress architecture of the 12th century; However, the influence of Byzantine architecture is also clearly visible, which can be traced back to the participation of local craftsmen and the use of local building materials.
Chlemoutsi in the Peloponnese in the prefecture of Elis
Location of Chlemoutsi Castle (Χλεμούτσι)
Chlemoutsi Castle plan
inner part of the castle
View of the castle from the sea
The forecourt of the castle with a view of the sea
The ticket booth of Chlemoutsi Castle
A ruined corridor in the castle
literature
- Chronicle of Morea , anonymous medieval document published by the Principality of Achaia in the early 14th century.
- Christian Ottersbach: Chlemoutsi - a high point of high medieval castle building in Greece. Marburg correspondence sheet on castle research, issue 2, 1999/2000.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ As the inscription suggests, the coins were probably made in Glarentza.
Individual evidence
- ^ Lambert Schneider : Peloponnes, Cologne (DuMont art travel guide) 2001, ISBN 3-7701-4599-2 ; see. Olomouc # story
- ↑ Traquair R .: Laconia; I. Medieval Fortress . In: The Annual of the British School at Athens . Volume 12, 1906, pp. 272-276.
- ^ Wallace D., Boase TSR: The Arts in Frankish Greece and Rhodes, A History of the Crusades. (Ed.) Setton KM, Volume IV, The Art and Architecture of the Crusader States, (Ed.) Hazard, HW Madison 1977, 218.
- ^ Bon A .: La Morée franque. , Paris 1969 in P. Hetherington: Byzantine and Medieval Greece. Churches, castles and art of the mainland and Peloponnese. London 1991.
- ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius: History of the city of Athens in the Middle Ages in the Gutenberg-DE project
- ^ Sotiriou G .: Le Château-fort de Chlemoutsi et son Atelier Monetaire de Tournois de Clarentia , Journal International d 'Archeologie Numismatique, XIX, 1916-1917, 273-279.
- ^ Andrews, K .: Castles of the Morea Princeton 1953, Reprint Amsterdam 1978
- ↑ Bon A .: A propos des châteaux de plan polygonal , Revue archéologique , Paris 1947, Ser. 6 XXVIII 177-179.
Coordinates: 37 ° 53 '24 " N , 21 ° 8' 31.5" E