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This article is about the Greek geographical feature and town. For the mythological figure see Pylus (mythology). For board game see Pylos (board game).
Pylos, or Pílos (Greek: ?????, Italian: Navarino), is a large bay and a town on the west coast of the Peloponnese, in the district of Messenia in southern Greece. It is the capital of Pylia Province. Nearby villages include Gialova, Elaiofyto, Schinolakka, and Palaionero. The town of Pylos has 2,561 inhabitants, the municipality of Pylos 5,402 (2001).
Old Pylos and New Pylos are distinct settlements and castles, several kilometers apart.
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Encyclopedia
This article is about the Greek geographical feature and town. For the mythological figure see Pylus (mythology). For board game see Pylos (board game).
Pylos, or Pílos (Greek: ?????, Italian: Navarino), is a large bay and a town on the west coast of the Peloponnese, in the district of Messenia in southern Greece. It is the capital of Pylia Province. Nearby villages include Gialova, Elaiofyto, Schinolakka, and Palaionero. The town of Pylos has 2,561 inhabitants, the municipality of Pylos 5,402 (2001).
Old Pylos and New Pylos are distinct settlements and castles, several kilometers apart. Old Pylos (Navarino Vecchio) is located on the northwest of the bay, while New Pylos is located in the southeast.
The bay of Pylos was the site of two naval battles:
The Name of Navarino
In the Middle Ages, Pylos was named Avarino (?ßa?????), probably after a body of Avars who settled there. Hopf's theory that it comes from the Navarrese Company is chronologically unsustainable. It was later called Navarino, with the incorporation of the ? of the article t??. Another theory suggests it is a Slavic name meaning "place of maples".
The Venetian name was "Zonklon" (from Greek Ionchion), the Turkish name (1498-1821) "Anavarin" (with another round of epenthesis), and the local Greek name "Neokastron" 'new castle'.
Other names recorded for the town and the castles are Avarmus, Abarinus, Albarinos, Albaxinus, Avarinos, Coryphasium, Iverin, Nelea, Port de Jonc, Porto Giunco, and Zunchio.
Geography
The soil about Navarino is of a red colour, and is remarkable for the production of an infinite quantity of squills, which are used in medicine. The rocks, which show themselves in every direction through a scanty but rich soil, are limestone, and present a general appearance of unproductiveness round the castle of Navarino; and the absence of trees is ill compensated by the profusion of sage, brooms, cistus, and other shrubs which start from the innumerable cavities of the limestone.
The remains of Navarino Vecchio, or ancient Navarino, consist of a fort, covering the summit of a hill sloping quickly to the south, but falling in abrupt precipices to the north and east. The town was built on the southern declivity, and was surrounded by a wall, which, allowing for the natural irregularities of the soil, represented a triangle, with the castle at the summit—a form observable in many of the ancient cities of Greece.
Bay of Pylos
Pylos' bay is formed by a deep indenture in the Morea, shut in by a long island, anciently called Sphacteria or Sphagia (modern name Sfaktiria), famous for the defeat and capture of the Spartans, in the Battle of Pylos during the Peloponnesian War, and still showing the ruins of walls which perhaps formed their last refuge. This island has been divided into three or four separate sections by the violence of the waves, and boats could pass from the open sea into the port, in calm weather, using the channels so formed. One such section contains the tomb of a Turkish saint, or santon, called the Delikli Baba. This same section also contains a monument to the French sailors who died at the Battle of Navarino; the monument to the Russian dead of the same battle is on the island of Sphacteria, while the monument to the English dead is on another very small island near the centre of the port. Monuments and tombs from the Greek War of Independence are on the island of Sphacteria, the most important being the monument to the Italian philhellene Santorre di Santa Rosa.
Mythology
Pylos is the supposed birthplace of the venerable Nestor, its king.
History
Bronze Age Pylos
Bronze Age Pylos was excavated by Carl Blegen in 1952. It is located at modern Ano Englianos, about 9 km north-east of the bay. Blegen called the remains of a large Mycenean palace found there the "Palace of Nestor", after the character Nestor, who ruled over "Sandy Pylos" in the Homeric poems. Linear B tablets found by Blegen clearly demonstrate that the site itself was called Pylos (Mycenaean Greek Pulos, Linear B Pu-ro) by its Mycenean inhabitants. This site was abandoned sometime after the 8th century BC. The ruins of a crude stone fortress on nearby Sphacteria Island, apparently of Mycenean origin, were used by the Spartans during the Peloponnesian War. (Thucydides iv. 31)
Classical Pylos
The site of classical Pylos was probably on the rocky promontory now known as Koryphasion at the northern edge of the bay of Pylos. This site is described by the Greek historian Thucydides in his History of the Peloponnesian War. In 425 BC the Athenian politician Cleon sent an expedition to Pylos, to seize and occupy the bay. The Athenians captured a number of Spartan troops on the adjacent island of Sphacteria (see Battle of Sphacteria). Spartan anxiety over the return of the prisoners, who were taken to Athens as hostages, contributed to their acceptance of the Peace of Nicias in 421 BC.
Byzantine Avarino or Navarino
Venetian and Ottoman Anavarino
The Venetians built fortresses both at Old Navarino and (much later) at New Navarino.
The Ottoman Empire took Navarino from the Venetians in 1499. They rebuilt the Venetian old fortress in 1572, under the name Anavarin-i atik.
Administratively, Anavarino was a kaza.
In 1668, Evliya Çelebi describes the city in his Seyahatname:
Anavarin-i atik is an unequalled castle... the harbor is a safe
anchorage...
in most streets of Anavarin-i cedid [New Navarino] there are many fountains of
running water... The city is embellished with trees and vines so
that the sun does not beat into the fine marketplace at all, and
all the city notables sit here, playing backgammon, chess, various
kinds of draughts, and other board games....
Starting in 1686, the Venetians tried to retake Navarino and the rest of the Morea, but were finally defeated in 1715. The Ottomans started rebuilt the fortress of New Navarino, Anavarin-i Cedid, (which had been heavily damaged) immediately thereafter. There was another round of repairs in 1770.
The Modern Town
The western end of Greek National Road 82 begins in downtown Pylos. The highway runs west to east and links Pylos with Kalamata and Sparta. The area enjoys a famously favorable climate, with especially mild winters.
Communities
- Ampelokipoi
- Glyfada
- Iklena
- Kallithea
- Kynigos
- Mesochori
- Pappoulia
- Pidasos
- Pyla
- Pylos
- Chomatada
Historical population
See also
External links
Northwest: Korynthos
| North: Chiliochora, Nestor and Papaflessa |
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West: Ionian Sea
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Pylos |
East: Chiliochora |
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| South: Methoni |
Southeast: Epia
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