Jaap van 't Veen's photos

Larissa Castle ( Κάστρο Λάρισα ) - the ancient and medieval acropolis of the city of Argos - is located on the top of the Larissa hill on a height of 289 meters above the city of Argos. The first inhabitants of the area were the Pelasgians - pre-Hellenic people inhabiting parts of Greece - and the names "Argos" and "Larissa" are pelasgian. The meaning of the first was “valley” and of the latter “acropolis”. Τhe castle was created in the 6th century B.C. but there was a fortification there since prehistoric times and the epoch of the Pelasgians. The medieval castle was first built by the Byzantines in the 10th century. During the Byzantine period, the fortress was of strategic importance. In 1203, it came under the control of the archon of Nafplio. In 1212 it was captured by Othon de la Roche, the Bourgoundian Duke of Athens, and was controlled by the Franks until 1388. Between 1394 and 1463 it was occupied by the Venetians. In 1463 it was captured by the Turks and remained under their control until 1822, interrupted during 1686-1715, when Larissa came under the control of the Venetians. The site was liberated by the Greeks in 1822 during the Greek War of Independence. .

The Loukous Monastery ( Ιερά Μονή Λουκούς ) is probably built on the site of an early Christian church of the 5th century AD. The current catholicon - was rebuilt on its remains in 1117 - is a domed church of the composite four columned. It is decorated with fine wall paintings and its floor is paved with coloured marble slabs. The iconostasis is decorated with portable icons dated to the 17th century. ( Just a pity we were not allowed to take pictures inside the church ) Today the monastery is one of the most important Byzantine monuments in Arcadia. The most possible etymology of the name of the monastery is from the Latin word “Lucus”, which means “Holy Forest”. The monastery was male until 1946 which after turned into a female one.

The Saint Spyridion church was built by the first inhabitants of the island. They came from Mani, one of the The Agios Spyridon church ( Αγίου Σπυρίδωνα ) - located at the entrance of the port of Elafonisos - is the landmark of the little island. The church is built on a rocky island with cedar trees and is connected with the main island by a bridge. The church was built by the first inhabitants of the island. They came from Mani, one of the three peninsulas which extend from the Peloponnese, around the year of 1858. The church was renovated in 1962. The iconostasis is made of stones from Malta and decorated with remarkable icons. The church is the only historical holy monument on Elafonisos.

Elafonisos ( Ελαφόνησος ) is a small island off the coast of the Peloponnese. The area of the island is just 19 square kilometres. Elafonisos is by far the largest inhabited island in the Peloponnese archipelago, and the only one that is a separate municipality. There are also some archaeological discoveries to explore on the island and in the surrounding waters. The main church is Agios Spyridon , which is built on a separate, tiny piece of land which is connected by a bridge to the rest of the island. Elafonisos is a popular holiday destination due to its sandy beaches and turquoise waters. In antiquity, Elafonisos did not constitute an island but a peninsula with the name Onou Gnathos. It took its current form after a devastating earthquake in the year of 375, which divided Elafonisos from mainland Peloponnese.

The Odontotos rack railway runs between Diakopto on the coast of the Corinthian Bay and Kalavryta on a height of almost 750 meters. It follows the Vouraikos river over bridges and through tunnels. The construction of the network started in 1889 and it was inaugurated on 10 March 1896. It has a length of just more than 22 kilometers. With a gauge of 0,75 meter the Odontotos is one of the narrowest in the world. The railway has some characteristic stations. The main image shows the Kalavryta railway station and PiP1 the Mega Spileo station.

The Monastery of Mega Spileo ( Μονή Μεγάλου Σπηλαίου ) - formally the Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos ( Ιερά Μονή Κοιμήσεως της Θεοτόκου ) - is built on the western slopes of Mount Helmos at a height of more than 900 meters. The monastery's architecture reminds of a fortress and it has eight floors. The cells of the monks are built around a cave. The monastery – one of the oldest of Greece - was originally built in 362 by two Thessalonian brothers, when a shepherd girl found an icon of the Virgin Mary inside a cave. The icon was made of wax and mastic and it is believed that Apostle Luke painted it. The icon survived a lot of fires and destruction and can still be admired in the monastery (PiP5). In the year of 840 Mega Spileo Monastery was burnt down by a religious group. It was rebuilt in 1285 by the emperor Andronikos Paleologos, but suffered many destroying fires along its history. The monastery suffered another destruction in 1943 when the Nazi troops, after the massacre of Kalavryta , put the Monastery of Mega Spileo on fire and killed its twelve monks and its staff, either shooting at them or throwing them from the rocks. Some managed to survive, hidden in close caves after having taken some valuable icons with them. Nowadays the Monastery of Mega Spileo is an imposing construction with a 17th-century church that hosts remarkable frescoes, mosaic floors and a bronze door with relief decoration. The Monastery also hosts a museum that displays carved wooden crosses, antique manuscripts, and Holy Gospels.

According to mythology, Nafplion was founded by Nafplios, the son of god Poseidon and the daughter of Danaus Anymone. The town’s history traces back to the prehistoric era when soldiers from here participated in the Argonautic expedition and the Trojan War alike. The town declined during the Roman times and flourished again during the Byzantine times. Frankish, Venetian and Turkish conquerors left their mark in the town and strongly influenced its culture, architecture and traditions during the centuries. After Greek War of Independence, Nafplion became the first Greek capital in 1829. Nafplion remained the capital of the kingdom until 1834, when King Otto decided to move the capital to Athens. Nowadays Nafplion is considered being one of the most beautiful cities in Greece. It offers magnificent neoclassical buildings, large squares, pretty flower-decorated shopping streets along with the harbour and imposing forts and castles.

Because the city of Argos was constantly growing the small Church of St. Nicholas no longer served the needs of the people and it was outside the center of the city. The people of Argos therefore decided to establish a large and luxurious church in a central point of the city. The foundation of the Cathedral of St. Peter was laid in July1859. The ceremony was attended by King Otto, the first king of independent Greece. The inauguration of the church took place on April 18, 1865.

Originally the Saint George Monastery ( Ιερά Μονή Αγίου Γεωργίου Φενεού ) was located much lower along the river Doxa (the current location of the Saint Fanourios Chapel ). Due to floodings the monastery was rebuilt in its present location - at an altitude of 1.000 meters - at the end of the 17th century. In 1754, the monastery had to be renovated because of the damage caused by a fire. Today’s 3-storey monastery has an indoor court where one can find the catholicon, a domed basilica, decorated with magnificent religious frescoes and a wonderful gold plated wooden iconostasis, adorned with images and representations from the Old and New Testament. Around the catholicon there are two and three-storey buildings which are the quarters of monks. The monastery is well known for its spoon sweets, which is made by the monks themselves from roses. From the monastery one has a breathtaking view of the unspoiled landscape of Lake Doxa .

The picturesque chapel of Saint Fanourios ( Εξωκλήσι Αγίου Φανουρίου ) is situated on a small peninsula of Lake Doxa , jutting out into the center of the lake. The chapel was originally the church of the first monastery built in the Feneos plain in the 13th century, dedicated to Saint George. At the end of the 17th century flooding of the rivers Doxa and Olvios forced the monks to abandon the original momastery and to build a new one at a higher location. However, the original chapel of the old monastery remained intact over the centuries and was rededicated in 1991 to Saint Fanourios to prevent it from falling into disuse. (Next to the chapel one can see some remains of the old monastery: PiP3). Architecturally, the Saint Fanourios Chapel does not display any particular interest, but in combination with the natural beauty reflected in the waters of the lake, it creates a unique and idyllic image. Over the past three decades, it has become the landmark of the area.

Lake Doxa ( Λίμνη Δόξα ) is an artifial lake. It is situated at an elevation of almost 900 meters and was dammed in the late 1990s. The lake was created to improve irrigation and to address the problem of high tide which destroyed the crops in the region. The lake - which covers an area of over half a square kilometer - is fed and drained by the river Doxa. The lake reaches a maximum depth of 40 meters. Lake Doxa is surrounded by oaks and pine forests. It has been declared a nature reserve, being a habitat to regional flora and fauna and an area of great natural beauty. The main image was taken from the monastery of Saint George

The small village of Plataniotissa, 30km northwest of the town of Kalavryta, has is one of the holiest and most unique pilgrimages of Greece, Church of Our Lady ( Panagia Plataniotissa ) (All Holy Virgin of the Plane Tree) which is tucked inside the hollow of a large plane tree (it’s a special and natural phenomenon which was created when three plane trees sprung together close to each other and over time united into one). Nowadays the tree has a base of around 16 meters. The interior of the church - about 8 meters long and 3 meters wide with a capacity of around 20 people - shows the depiction of the icon of the Holy Virgin, holding baby Jesus. We were a little disappointed with our visit to the tree church in Plataniotissa. Unlike the pictures on the internet, almost all the branches of the plane tree (and also of the surrounding trees) had been cut off due to disease. As a result, only a trunk remains, making it much less impressive

In October 1943, Greek guerrillas captured some 80 German soldiers on a patrol mission, following an ambush in the mountains outside Kalavryta. After negotiations for a prisoner exchange failed, the captives were executed, with only two making a lucky escape undetected. In response the German army started a guerrilla cleanup operation that included terrible reprisals aimed at the local civilian population. Troops converged to the town of Kalavryta from all directions, burning and looting 50 villages along the way and executing many male civilians. Upon reaching Kalavryta on December 13, 1943, the soldiers began setting the town ablaze. They then gathered the town’s entire population at the schoolyard and separated them in two groups. All able men age 13 and upward were led to Kapi Hill, just outside the town, while women, the elderlyand children were locked inside the schoolhouse. (The clock in the cathedral's left tower always reads 14:34, the time at which the horrifying event took place on the December day in question in 1943.) The schoolhouse was set on fire with over 200 women and cildren inside. The soldiers began executing nearly 500 men - only 13 men survived the execution - by machine gun fire. While the execution took place on the hill, the panicked, choking prisoners managed to smash through the school’s doors and escape, while others threw their children outside the windows of the burning building to save them. Today, a memorial complex stands on the hill where the execution took place. It includes a large cross, ossuary, the harrowing sculpture of a lamenting woman of Kalavryta, as well as some on-the-spot graves that remained on site since that day.

The Holy Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is located in the central square at the heart of the village. The church was built in the period 1730-1750 and then burned by the Ottomans in 1826, rebuilt, but was destroyed again by the Germans in 1943. The clock on its left belfry is stopped at the time - 14.34 hours - of the Nazi atrocity in December 1943, while on the right a new clock measures the time since the liberation from the Germans. A plaque reads “The hour of destruction left a scar on time. The silenced clock will always read disaster and death, blood, fire and pain at the exact hour the lament began. December 13, 1943” On the second clock tower a plaque reads “The Holy Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was set on fire by the Ottomans in 1826. Was set on fire again by the German on December 13th 1943”.

National Park Kotyhi Stropfylia ( Εθνικό Πάρκο υγροτόπων Κοτυχίου Στροφυλιάς ) extends over an area of approximately 8.000 ha and includes a unique combination of habitats of high ecological and aesthetic values. Its most characteristic ones are the wetlands and surrounding seasonal flooded areas, forests (consisting of three tree species: umbrella pine, Aleppo pine and valonia oak), sand dunes and calcareous hills. Kotyhi Stropfylia is an ideal rest stop for migratory birds and home of a large variety of plants and animals.

The monastery of Agia Lavra is one of the oldest monasteries in Peloponnese. The first one was built in the year 961, but it was burnt down three times: in 1585 by the Turks, in 1826 by the armies of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt and by the German troops in 1943. Finally, in 1950 the monastery of Agia Lavra was rebuilt. Which means the buildings are quite modern, except for a small chapel - dating back till 1600 - where the Greek War of Independence of 1821 was declared (PiP1). The monastery’s museum is devoted to historical treasures. Among them perhaps the most remarkable is the Revolution’s Banner; the first flag of independent Greece (just a pity photography is forbidden in the museum) .

Chlemoutsi Castle (Κάστρο Χλεμούτσ) was founded in 1220-1223 by the ruler Godefridus I Villehardouin and was the strongest fortress of the Frankish principality of Achaia. Originally the castle was called “Château Clermont”, travellers referred to this incredible structure as “Castle Tornese” and the Byzantines called it “Chloumoutzi”. Built in a strategic position, with an extensive view of the plain of Ilia and the Ionian Sea, it protected the capital Andravida, the important harbour of Glarenza and the palace of the house of Villehardouin within the walls of the castle. The castle was equipped with a double fortification. The central part of the castle, which stands at the hilltop, was a two-storey hexagonal structure and housed the princely palace. The halls were arranged around a central courtyard. Chlemoutsi castle began to lose its important role in the defence of the region as early as the end of the Frankish occupation. In 1701 Grimani proposed its destruction. Its location did not serve the interests of the Venetians, which were related to the sea, and the already old castle required extensive work to repair and modernise it. Chlemoutsi remained in Turkish possession until the Greek War of Indepence of 1821. Chlemoutsi Castle still retains its strong Frankish character and remains one of the most important and best preserved fortresses in Greece and is an excellent example of the fortress architecture of the Frankish era in the Peloponnese. Nowadays some of the restored halls of the castle house a museum with about 500 objects on display (PiP5).

Church of Saint Nicholas in the coastal village of Arkoudi.