Kastro Kiveriou
| Kastro Kiveriou | ||
|---|---|---|
 View from the east of the redoubt of Kastro Kiveriou Castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Kastro Lernis (Κάστρο Λέρνης), Kastro Mylon Argous (Κάστρο Μύλων Άργους) | |
| Creation time : | Late 13th century / early 14th century | |
| Castle type : | Höhenburg, rock castle | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Place: | Myli | |
| Geographical location | 37 ° 33 '15.9 " N , 22 ° 42' 36.3" E | |
| Height: | 179 m | |
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Kastro Kiveriou ( Greek Κάστρο Κιβερίου = Castle of Kiveri ) is the ruin of a Frankish rock castle in the Argolis in Greece. It is located about 300 m west of the village of Myli on the 139 m high mountain Pontinos. The castle was named after the place that lies below the castle and was called Kiveri in the Middle Ages . The place was later renamed Myli. The modern town of Kiveri is 3 km south.
description
At the highest point there was a hexagonal redoubt of about 1000 m². It was about 40 m in diameter and there was a tower on every corner. The gate was probably between the south-west and south-west towers. Two cisterns are still preserved in the middle. The square keep of 9 × 9 m with 1.35 m thick walls once rose above the western one . When Jean Alexandre Buchon visited the castle in the 19th century, the keep was several stories high. The walls and towers were made of local limestone as found on the Pontinos. The stones were roughly trimmed and built with mortar . The mortar mixture on the south-western and northern towers was obviously too lean and so it has crumbled into sand today. The towers were of different sizes and also differed in shape and construction.
To the north of the redoubt was an approximately pentagonal outer bailey . It measured about 130 m in west-east direction and about 85 m in north-south direction and had an area of approximately 8500 m². The curtain wall was about 300 m long and closed in the west to the northwest and in the east to the northeast tower of the redoubt. It has not yet been clarified whether there was a connection between the redoubt and the outer bailey. The curtain wall was about 2.00 m thick and was reinforced by eight towers. Most of the towers were rectangular, 2.60 x 4.00 m, and protruded from the wall between 2.50 m and 3.00 m. They were roughly evenly distributed and spaced between 25 m and 45 m. While the south-west tower was slightly sloping towards the outside, all the others had vertical masonry. Numerous ruins of small buildings can be seen within the outer bailey. In the far east of the outer bailey and at the lowest point - about 25 m below the summit - are the foundation walls of a small church. It was about 10 m long and 5.50 m wide and the apse was oriented roughly to the east.
The modern Profitis Ilias chapel is located about 70 m southeast of the redoubt. There are numerous rectangular foundation walls on the mountainside north of the outer bailey. There were probably windmills here once.
history
Pausanias , who visited the place in the 2nd century, reported that on the summit of Pontinos there was a sanctuary of Athena Saitis , which was built by Danaos . It was in ruins even then. Here the Egyptian goddess Neith , who was the main goddess of the city of Sais, was worshiped. She has been equated with Athena because of her aspect of the goddess of war. It is believed that the sanctuary was built in the Hellenistic period . In addition to the sanctuary, Pausanias also saw the foundation walls of the house of Hippomedon , who took part in the battle of the seven against Thebes .
Between 1209 and 1212 Gottfried I von Villehardouin conquered the Argolis. For 99 years, the fiefs of Argos and Nauplia were in the hands of the Villehardouin family . At some point during this period, Kastro Kiveriou Castle was built to control the road that ran south to Argos . This is evidenced by ceramic shards that are dated to the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century. In addition, a silver coin from Isabelle de Villehardouin , the last feudal mistress of Argos and Nauplia , was found during excavations at the castle . In 1311 the Duchy of Argos and Nauplia fell to Walter VI. from Brienne . 1347 the castle was in the will of Walter VI. First mentioned by Brienne under the name "Chamires". The rule of the Franks over the Duchy of Argos, Nauplia and Kiveri, as it was now called, ended in 1388 when Maria d'Enghien sold it to the Republic of Venice . Before the takeover could be completed, however, Theodor I. Palaiologos , the despot of Morea , occupied the castles of Argos and Kiveri. In order to gain possession of the castles, Nerio I. Acciaiuoli , the father-in-law of Theodor I. Palaiologos, was taken prisoner in 1389 . When he promised to persuade his son-in-law to surrender and received other promises, he was released. But it was not until 1394 that Theodor I. Palaiologos handed over the castles.
In the years 1458 and 1460 Mehmed II conquered large parts of the Peloponnese and finally in 1463 also the Argolis. However, the Kastro Kiveriou castle remained in Venetian ownership. However , maintenance of the castle was neglected during the Second Ottoman-Venetian War . In 1481 Venice signed a contract stating that the castle would remain in possession but restoration was prohibited. In 1540, Suleyman I finally conquered the south-east of the Argolis, but did not repair the castle. The castle was never rebuilt in the following years either. From 1688 to 1715 it came back into Venetian and then again into Ottoman possession. In 1821 during the Greek Revolution the castle came under Greek control. In 1825 the castle was used as a shelter when Ibrahim Pasha was defeated in the Battle of Myli .
Travelers of the 18th and 19th centuries also called the fortification " Helena Castle " or saw it as a fortification that Temenos had built to conquer the city of Argos, which was ruled by Tisamenos .
literature
- Wallace E. McLeod: Kiveri and Thermisi in American School of Classical Studies at Athens : Hesperia , Volume 31, Part 4, pp. 378–392 ( online )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Jean Alexandre Buchon: La Grèce continentale et la Morée, voyage, séjour et études historiques en 1840 et 1841 , Paris 1843, pp. 416–417 ( online )
- ^ Pausanias: Travels in Greece , 2, 37, 2
- ^ Pausanias: Travels in Greece , 2, 36, 8
- ^ Brice L. Erickson: Lerna. Volume VIII. The Historical Greek Village. , Princeton 2018, ISBN 978-0-87661-308-5 , pp. 3-4 ( online )
- ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius : History of the city of Athens in the Middle Ages. From the time of Justinian to the Turkish conquest. , Munich 1980, ISBN 3-406-07951-2 , pp. 447-455