Let's Go for a Walk-European Days of Cultural Heritage/Kyparissia

Kyparissia, or Arkadia, according to its older name, develops amphitheatrically in the foothills of Mount Psychro or Aegaleo up to the sea, combining a semi-mountainous geophysical relief and a seaside location. Due to its current location, the area has been continuously inhabited since the Homeric period. During the Byzantine times, the city was populated by crowds of Arcadians who settled there, pressed by the raids of the Slavs in the Peloponnese and developed into an important commercial hub. From 1204 onwards, Kyparissia was occupied by the Franks of the Fourth Crusade, following the fate of the broader area of ​​the southern Peloponnese. During the 1st Turkish rule (1459-1685), the city experienced an economic boom and a consequent residential development. Ruins of buildings in the eastern part of the outer enclosure of the Castle formed the beginning of the settlement of the Upper Town, which slowly expanded outside the fortifications to the east and south of the Castle.

The settlement of Ano Poli (Upper Town) preserved, to some extent, the urban organisation of a typical city of the late post-Byzantine era: dense construction, narrow alleys and cobbled streets. Exciting examples of houses, church monuments, secular buildings, fountains, etc., are preserved inside the settlement. Most of the churches are simple examples of post-Byzantine architecture that underwent renovations in the modern era after the invasion of Ibrahim. The metropolitan church of Agia Triada dates back to the second half of the 19th century, but its eastern face with rich ceramic decoration shows an older core that probably dates back to the second half of the 15th century. Saint Demetrius in the cemetery and the Entrances of the Virgin are examples of the neoclassical ecclesiastical architecture of the late 19th century.

The infrastructure works carried out during Ottoman rule are evidenced by various ruins of public or private buildings in the Upper Town and near the Castle. These are the hammam (small Ottoman bath) and the "Sultan Suleiman" mosque located east of the Castle. An interesting monument, a remnant of the presence of the Venetians (1685-1715) in the city, is the gate of the Park of the Entrances engraved with the date 1787. The surviving fountains of the settlement can be classified into two groups: the first includes fountains belonging to the period of sovereignty of the Ottomans, and the second in the modern era. In the first category belong the two fountains near the entrance of the Castle, Stafidovrisi, the oldest built-in fountain of Piso Rouga and Pazarovrysi. The newer fountains echo the neoclassical style of the time. The houses of the settlement of Ano Poli are usually two-storied, tiled roofed with two or four-pitched roofs and rectangular openings with wooden frames. A rare example of the influence of the northern Greek architectural tradition in Kyparissia is the house with the sachnisi on Elenis Chameri Street with several wood-carved decorative elements.

Departure from Kalamata at 10 am

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