Mendenitsa Castle #1119

Description

The castle was built in 1204 by the Lombard knight Guido Pallavicini, who became Marquess of Bodonitsa under Boniface of Montferrat, the “King of Thessalonica,” following the fall of Constantinople and the beginning of the Frankish occupation of Greece.

After the fall of the Kingdom of Thessalonica in 1224, Mendenitsa gained a degree of autonomy, though it remained a vassal of the Principality of Achaea. The small state persisted even after the Catalans took over the Duchy of Athens in 1311. In 1335, Venetian Niccolo I Zorzi became lord of Mendenitsa by marrying the last Pallavicini descendant, Guglielma, who was known as “The Lady of Thermopylae.”

The Ottomans captured the castle on June 20, 1414, forcing the last marquis, Niccolo II Zorzi, to flee to Venice. Under Ottoman rule, Mendenitsa gradually declined as it lost its strategic significance following Ottoman dominance across Greece.

In the early months of the Greek War of Independence in 1821, Greek forces captured the castle.