8 March 2025 – Methoni

Miles driven today = 0

Total Miles to date = 1,747

It’s roughly a kilometre walk from the campsite to the centre of Methoni.  The pavement along the shoreline isn’t in particularly good nick and at one point Lisa missed her footing.  Initially there didn’t seem to be any damage but since we have been back at the van this afternoon her foot has been rather painful and she is hobbling quite a bit.  There’s no swelling but she’s obviously tweaked or moved something and is feeling a little sorry for herself.  Ibuprofen and wine do appear to be helping though.

The Castle here is huge and once again it was those Venetians who were behind its construction.  I’m really quite flabbergasted at the sheer number of Castles they built on this coastline.  I mean Venice isn’t a particularly big place, so how did they provide all the manpower to build, occupy and defend all these enormous structures?

With the castle defended by the Sea on 3 sides you approach the entrance over a bridge across the Castle’s moat.

You can tell the Venetians were responsible for building the walls with their winged lion emblem appearing in many places around the Castle.

A secondary gateway leads into the main castle grounds.

This rather incongruous looking marble column was in fact rescued from a nearby shipwreck.  It is inscribed with the date 1493.   The slab on top is unrelated and bears the coasts of arms of the families who ran Methoni in 1394.

Another internal gateway leads to an internal citadel on the landward side of the Castle.

Apparently there are lots of vaulted tunnels running underneath the castle grounds but most of them are blocked off and having seen what passes for health and safety round here we weren’t about to go exploring this one.

From a high point on the Castle walls we could look down on the moat and the modern town of Methoni beyond.  Our campsite is along the bay to the right.

This gives you some idea of the scale looking South across the Castle.  Most of the buildings of the town which would have existed inside the Castle were wooden and so have not survived.  The island in the background is Sapientza.  It’s uninhabited although there is a small castle on its far side.

We’ve struggled to find out what this strange Pyramid roofed building is.  It’s mentioned in the Rough Guide but we are still none the wiser as to what useful purpose it may have once served.

Unfortunately a lot of the seaward facing walls have succumbed to the elements.

This is actually described as being the Castle’s Cathedral.  There is currently no public admittance allowed and I’m not really sure what the floodlights are all about either, if indeed that is what they are.

The Ottoman Turks captured the Castle in 1500 and slaughtered many of its residents.  These reconstructed gates date from their time in charge.

There are also 2 Turkish Hammans (baths) within the Castle grounds which remain in fairly good state of repair.

Beyond the southern tip of the Castle and on a separate small island is the “Bourtzi”, which you can see in this picture.  The octagonal tower was built by the Ottomans in the 16^th Century and it served as a prison and place of execution.  Unfortunately the gate and causeway which lead to it were cordoned off and guarded by a very officious security chap so we could only view it from afar.

We had promised ourselves a proper lunch today and initially had our designs on a well reviewed taverna called Nikos but that didn’t look as though it had been open for several months so we went for the reserve option of a place called Modon near the beach.  For starters we had their house salad which included oranges and chunks of bacon.

And then, as is traditional on our holidays by the Sea, we couldn’t resist their shared Seafood Platter.  They had no sardines and so they were replaced with some very tasty crevettes, all sloshed down with a couple of beers for less than €50.

We went for a stroll around the town to aid digestion but apart from numerous low-rise hotels there isn’t a great deal here.  We did stumble across this well though which dates from the period the Venetians wrested back control of the town, plus a couple of oddly arranged cannons.

Apart from that it’s been an afternoon of feet up for Lisa and watching the footy for me while also listening to the waves which have strangely become much more vociferous today given how little wind we’ve noticed.

9 March 2025 - Finikounta & Koroni