Palamidi Castle: One of the most impressive castles in Greece

Built in just a few years and completed in 1714, to serve the strategic needs of the Venetian conquerors, Palamidi – with its renowned 999 steps – stands proudly on a 216m tall hill to the east of Akronafplia. It was named after the Homeric hero Palamides, an inventive youth from Nafplio, who took part in the Trojan War but never returned home, as he was betrayed by Ulysses and murdered.

In 1715, during the Turkish-Venetian war, the castle was stormed by 100,000 men and fell into Turkish hands after yet another betrayal. This time it was Lasalle, one of the two engineers who had designed the fortress, and was intimately acquainted with all its weak points. Palamidi was based on a system of mutually supported bastions, so that if one of them was taken, the castle could rely on the others for defence. Without Lassalle’s help, the Turks would have never been able to breach the fortifications.

The third betrayal occurred after the liberation from the Turks, turning the fortress into a notorious prison. It is said that in 1834, Theodoros Kolokotronis, the hero of the Greek Revolution, was imprisoned in a dark dungeon, carved deep inside a rock, together with Dimitrios Plapoutas, when he was accused of high treason by the Regency regime (the Bavarians who governed Greece on behalf of the underage King Otto).

Recent studies, however, have demonstrated that he was probably imprisoned in the bastion of Miltiades, since each one of the castle’s eight bastions had its own name. According to folk legend, Kolokotronis’ horse broke the 1000th step of the fortress, subtracting one step from the western side of the castle, via Arvanitia beach, which is now accessible via 999 steps.