The castle and its besiegers
Monemvasia
In 375 a.d. an earthquake in the southeast of today’s Laconia cut off the peninsula known as “Edge Minoa”, creating a rock which was to remain up-rising and unspoiled for millennia.
Emperors, kings, counts, sultans, all wanted Monemvasia. They all sought to include it within their sovereign and thus benefit from this highly important trade and transport centre.
The rock resisted them strongly, it was hard to get – Guillermo Bilearduin had besieged it for three years to finally render it to Byzantium in 1263 – and today has come to be the most coveted destination for the visitor who seeks to really escape the sufferings of modern city life, who wants to swirl amidst history, romanticism and sentiment.
The visitor is struck by this sensation on entering the magical castropoliteia (interior of the castle) through the main gate, as passing underneath the home of the great poet Yiannis Ritsos you can hear the echoes of “Moonlight Sonata”. Walking up the cobble-stone pavements , setting foot on these stones, which time and myriad visitors have worn down, you feel the call of the past on you and the urge to unravel history.
