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Akova Castle
The Akova Castle ( el, Κάστρο της Άκοβας) is a medieval fortification in Gortynia, Arcadia, Greece. The medieval castle, also known as Mattegriffon, is built on top of a steep hill, inaccessible from the three sides. The castle was the centre of the Barony of Akova, one of the most important lordships of the Frankish Principality of Achaea, established in the Morea after the Fourth Crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S .... Below the castle are ruins of an unidentified ancient acropolis, possibly ancient Teuthis. For the last 40 years, Akova has been the site of a summer festival, involving theatrical plays and other cultural activities, hosted by the nearby village of Vyziki. Sources * * {{coord, 37.7176, 21.9881, type:landmark_region:GR, d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gortynia
Gortynia ( el, Γορτυνία) is a municipality in the Arcadia regional unit, Peloponnese, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Dimitsana. The municipality has an area of 1,050.882 km2. Municipality The municipality Gortynia was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 8 former municipalities, that became municipal units: * Dimitsana * Iraia * Kleitor * Kontovazaina * Langadia * Trikolonoi * Tropaia * Vytina Province The province of Gortynia ( el, Επαρχία Γορτυνίας) was one of the four provinces of Arcadia Prefecture. It was abolished in 2006. Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipality Gortynia and the municipal unit Gortyna Gortyna ( grc, Γόρτυνα; also known as Gortyn (Γορτύν)) was a town of ancient Crete which appears in the Homeric poems under the form of Γορτύν; but afterwards became usually Gortyna (Γόρτυνα). According to Stephanus o .... Refere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arcadia (regional Unit)
Arcadia ( el, Αρκαδία, ''Arkadía'' ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological figure Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan. In European Renaissance arts, Arcadia was celebrated as an unspoiled, harmonious wilderness. Geography Arcadia is a rural, mountainous regional unit comprising about 18% of the land area of the Peloponnese peninsula. It is the peninsula's largest regional unit. According to the 2011 census, it has about 86,000 inhabitants; its capital, Tripoli, has about 30,000 residents in the city proper, and about 47,500 total in the greater metropolitan area. Arcadia consists partly of farmland, and to a larger extent grassland and degenerated shrubland. It also has three mountain ranges, with forestation mainly at altitudes above 1000 meters: Mainalo, a winter ski resort, situa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Sea of Crete and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin, featuring thousands of islands. The country consists of nine traditional geographic regions, and has a population of approximately 10.4 million. Athens is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki and Patras. Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilization, being the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, Western literature, historiography, political science, major scientific and mathematical p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barony Of Akova
The Barony of Akova was a medieval Frankish fiefdom of the Principality of Achaea, located in the mountains of eastern Elis in the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, centred on the fortress of Akova or Mattegrifon (situated near Vyziki in the Tropaia municipal unit). It was among the twelve original baronies of Achaea, but was conquered by the Byzantines in 1320. History The Barony of Akova was established ca. 1209, after the conquest of the Peloponnese by the Crusaders, and was one of the original twelve secular baronies within the Principality of Achaea. Along with the Barony of Patras, Akova was one of the two largest and most important baronies of the Principality, with twenty-four knight's fees attached to it.Miller (1921), pp. 71–72 The barony's capital was the fortress of Akova or Mattegrifon (''kill Greek'', ''grifon'' being a Frankish term for the Greeks) built on the mountainous area known in the ''Chronicle of the Morea'' as Mesarea, separating Elis from Arcadia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankokratia
The ''Frankokratia'' ( el, Φραγκοκρατία, la, Francocratia, sometimes anglicized as Francocracy, "rule of the Franks"), also known as ''Latinokratia'' ( el, Λατινοκρατία, la, Latinocratia, "rule of the Latins") and, for the Venetian domains, ''Venetokratia'' or ''Enetokratia'' ( el, Βενετοκρατία or Ενετοκρατία, la, Venetocratia, "rule of the Venetians"), was the period in Greek history after the Fourth Crusade (1204), when a number of primarily French and Italian states were established by the '' Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae'' on the territory of the dissolved Byzantine Empire. The terms Frankokratia and Latinokratia derive from the name given by the Orthodox Greeks to the Western French and Italians who originated from territories that once belonged to the Frankish Empire. The Frankish Empire being the political entity which ruled much of the former Western Roman Empire after the collapse of Roman authority and powe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Principality Of Achaea
The Principality of Achaea () or Principality of Morea was one of the three vassal states of the Latin Empire, which replaced the Byzantine Empire after the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. It became a vassal of the Kingdom of Thessalonica, along with the Duchy of Athens, until Thessalonica was captured by Theodore, the despot of Epirus, in 1224. After this, Achaea became for a while the dominant power in Greece. Foundation Achaea was founded in 1205 by William of Champlitte and Geoffrey I of Villehardouin, who undertook to conquer the Peloponnese on behalf of Boniface of Montferrat, King of Thessalonica. With a force of no more than 100 knights and 500 foot soldiers, they took Achaea and Elis, and after defeating the local Greeks in the Battle of the Olive Grove of Koundouros, became masters of the Morea. The victory was decisive, and after the battle all resistance from the locals was limited to a few forts that continued to hold out. The fort of A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morea
The Morea ( el, Μορέας or ) was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used for the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the Ottoman Empire for the Morea Eyalet, and later by the Republic of Venice for the short-lived Kingdom of the Morea. Etymology There is some uncertainty over the origin of the medieval name "Morea", which is first recorded only in the 10th century in the Byzantine chronicles. Traditionally, scholars thought the name to have originated from the word ''morea'' (μορέα), meaning morus or mulberry, a tree which, though known in the region from the ancient times, gained value after the 6th century, when mulberry-eating silkworms were smuggled from China to Byzantium. The British Byzantinist Steven Runciman suggested that the name comes "from the likeness of its shape to that of a mulberry leaf". History After the conquest of Constantinop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid Sultanate, the strongest Muslim state of the time. However, a sequence of economic and political events culminated in the Crusader army's 1202 siege of Zara and the 1204 sack of Constantinople, the capital of the Greek Christian-controlled Byzantine Empire, rather than Egypt as originally planned. This led to the partitioning of the Byzantine Empire by the Crusaders. The Republic of Venice contracted with the Crusader leaders to build a dedicated fleet to transport their invasion force. However, the leaders greatly overestimated the number of soldiers who would embark from Venice, since many sailed from other ports, and the army that appeared could not pay the contracted price. In lieu of payment, the Venetian Doge Enrico Dandolo pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teuthis
Teuthis ( grc, Τεῦθις or Τευθίς) was a city of ancient Arcadia. It is mentioned in Pausanias, who visited and described its temples, and who narrated the elaborate story of King Teuthis' dispute with Agamemnon and goddess Athena in Aulis, prior to the Greek fleet's departure for the Trojan War. Introduction According to Pausanias, Teuthis together with Theisoa and Methydrium, were three cities who originally "belonged" to Orchomenus but whose inhabitants decided to relocate and join many others in forming the Great City ( Megalopolis), in 371 BCE in order to better protect themselves from the Spartans. Although labeled by some as a "Homeric" city, Teuthis is not explicitly mentioned in Homer. Thus, the oldest and practically the only "original" information we have about its location can be found in Pausanias. Unfortunately, his description of the whereabouts of Teuthis is open to interpretation and, therefore, has caused a great deal of disagreement ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vyziki
Vyziki ( el, Βυζίκι) is a mountain village in the municipal unit of Tropaia in Arcadia, Greece. It is located 85 km northwest of Tripoli, just off the midpoint of the national road EO74 which connects Tripoli to Pyrgos, and 2 km from Tropaia. The village is built at an altitude of 750 m. Most of its houses are traditional structures made of stone, and two of them are fortified Venetian tower-houses (see picture on the right). The two central "squares" ( Greek: πλατείες), the folklore museum, and the St. Nicholas Cathedral stand out among the village buildings. It has been declared a traditional settlement. According to the latest census study (2011) the number of residents is 232, most of them over aged. Major productive activities in the Vyziki area involve livestock and dairy products, with the produced milk being forwarded to the nearest arcadian cheese plants. Antiquities The village's greater area has an elongated shape and runs from the east ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castles And Fortifications Of The Principality Of Achaea
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; from a ''pleasance'' which was a walled-in residence for nobility, but not adequately fortified; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Use of the term has varied over time and has also been applied to structures such as hill forts and 19th-20th century homes built to resemble castles. Over the approximately 900 years when genuine castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls, arrowslits, and portcullises, were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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