Koroni's Castle #245

Description

It is one of the most famous castles in the Greek area, on the southeastern coast of the Prefecture of Messinia.

It is built on a low peninsula - hill in the homonymous city of Koroni.

It was built during Byzantine times, unknown exactly when, occupying the key geographical position where, according to Pausanias, the city of ancient Asini once dominated.

The castle underwent successive building phases during the 1st Venetian period (13th - 15th century) with the addition of a large enclosure to the east, strong walls and a double semi-circular bastion in the north-east corner, for protection from the sea side.

In the 1st Ottoman Empire (1500-1685) the fortification of the castle was strengthened on the southeast side with a second line of defense and the addition of two circular bastions at its ends (the bastion at the northern end of the wall was blown up at the end of World War II by the Germans and few ruins of it survive).

At the westernmost edge of the castle, a rampart was built by the Venetians (1463), which saw successive building phases, the last one in the Second Venetian Empire (1685-1715), and today only one part of it is preserved. Inside the castle dominate the ruins of a three-aisled basilica (perhaps from the 7th century with later phases), remains of the church of Agia Sophia.

Nearby, there is the current church of Agios Charalambos, which was originally built as a Catholic church dedicated to Agios Rocco, then turned into an Ottoman mosque and later, in more recent times, into an Orthodox church.

The western precinct of the castle is occupied by the Monastery of the Holy Forerunner, an old calendar monastery founded at the beginning of the 20th century.