One of the ancient castles of Greece. The location was fortified since prehistoric times and remained a powerful fortress through the classical period and the Middle Ages until the 19th century.
The final configuration of the castle was done by the Venetians.

Location & Strategic Scope

At the northern side of the town of Argos, there are two hills To the NE is Aspis and to the NW Larissa, the tallest of the two (287m). In the antiquity, there was another castle on Aspis which did not survive. There was a wall between the two castles for the protection of the city from the north.

The Name of the Castle

The first inhabitants of the area were the Pelasgians and the names "Argos" and "Larissa" are pelasgian. The meaning of the first was valley and of the latter acropolis.

History

The castle has existed since prehistoric times.
In the 5th and 6th centuries BC, the Argives repaired and completed the wall, following the older layout. Significant parts of that era are preserved in the northern and western parts.

Argos remained an important city during the Early Byzantine Period. It is included in the Synecdimos of Hierocles (6th century AD) which lists all the cities of the Byzantine territory. It is certain that under Justinian, in the 6th century, its fortifications were significantly strengthened.

The first mention of the castle during the Late Byzantine Period is made on the occasion of its capture in 1201 (or 1202) by the autonomous Byzantine ruler of the region Leon Sgouros, who in the turbulent years shortly before the Fourth Crusade had established an independent hegemony from Argolis to Boeotia.
In 1210, after the fall of Acrocorinth, Nafplio was captured by the Franks of Geoffroi de Villehardouin, while Argos (defended by Theodore, a legate of of Michael I, Despot of Epirus) held out a little longer and surrendered in 1212. The prince of Achaia ceded Argos and all of Argolis to his Burgundian ally, the Duke of Athens, Othon de La Roche.
The house of De La Roche was succeeded in 1309 (after marriage) by the house of De Brienne, who lost Athens to the Catalans of the Catalan Company in 1311 (after the Battle of Cephissus). However, they retained a part of the Duchy in their possession: Argolis.

In 1356, the castle, along with the rest of Argolis, passed into the jurisdiction of the De Brienne descendant Isabelle d’Enghien, who was the legal heiress of the Houses of De la Roche and of De Brienne. Isabelle did not care much and ceded the region, along with her rights to the Duchy of Athens, to her son Guy d’Enghien.

Baron Guy d’ Enghien took over in 1363 and was an active ruler. In 1377 he died and was succeeded by his minor daughter Maria d'Enghien. Maria married Pietro Cornaro, a Venetian from Argos, who wanted to bring the duchy under the control of Venice. The Venetian Senate approved this and the couple moved to Venice, but in the meantime Cornaro died. Venice eventually purchased Argolis from his widow in 1388 for 500 gold ducats per year, for life.

Before the Venetians could settle there, the Byzantines of the Despotate of Mystras overtook Argos and occupied it (along with Nafplio, Kiveri and Thermisi). They held Argos until 1394, when they were forced (due to a naval blockade) to finally cede it to the Venetians. The Venetians almost immediately began work to strengthen the fortifications.

In May 1397, the lower city of Argos, which had its own wall, was captured by the Ottomans in a surprise raid by Yakub Pasha. After this, the Venetians surrendered also the castle of Argos, without a fight. The city was razed. The Turks withdrew shortly afterwards, taking with them 30,000.
The Venetians returned and immediately took care of the repopulation of the city (mainly with Arvanites) and the reinforcement of the castle's fortifications.

However, for the Venetians, Argos had always been a possession of secondary importance (in comparison to, for example, Nafplio) on the one hand because its fortifications were not strong and on the other hand because it was not close to the sea. In Venetian documents, Argos is simply described as terra and not citta. Furthermore, for the Venetians, Argos had a castello and not a fortezza.

In April 1463, at the beginning of the First Venetian-Turkish War, Argos surrendered again to the Ottomans without a fight, after the betrayal of a priest.

The Venetians reacted and with an army of 20,000 men under Alvise Lorentan and general Bertholdo Este they counterattacked in August of the same year and temporarily retook Argos, while they also besieged Acrocorinth, where they were defeated and Este was killed.
Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror sent new strong forces with the Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha Angelovic, who at the beginning of In 1464, he crossed the Examilion, surprising the Venetians, captured Argos (which again surrendered easily). The inhabitants were again abducted to settle Constantinople.
In the treaty concluded at the end of the First Venetian-Turkish War (1479), Argos was officially passed to the Ottomans.

As soon as the Turks became masters of Argos in 1464, they began fortification works as they were still at war with the Venetians. There is evidence, as early as 1467, of the construction of a large cylindrical tower in the castle. Two centuries later, in 1668, the Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi describes the castle as a Venetian construction, speaks of its high tower and a mosque of the Conqueror, of 150 houses inside the castle that had been abandoned some time ago due to a plague epidemic, and of 80 houses of Ottomans and Greeks, on the perimeter of the castle.

A little later, in 1686, the city was recaptured by the Venetians of Morosini at the beginning of the Third Venetian-Turkish War. Around 1700, an explosion destroyed the central cylindrical tower of the castle, which was used as a gunpowder store, and in its place was later built the bastion that still survives today.
In 1715, when the Ottomans began preparations to recapture the Morea, the Venetians destroyed part of the castle's fortifications and abandoned it to fortify themselves in Palamidi.
The second Ottoman occupation of Argos lasted from 1715 to 1821.

What we keep from the centuries-old history of the castle of Argos is that it received many interventions and reinforcements in various periods: during the Byzantine period, the Frankish occupation, the Venetian occupation and, finally, during the Ottoman occupation. But despite all these reinforcements and although it is an imposing castle, it did not prove to be very strong.

In 1821, when the Greek Revolution broke out, the Muslim inhabitants abandoned it and fled for safety to Nafplio. In 1822, when Dramalis' large army arrived in Argos, Kolokotronis decided that the Greeks should fortify themselves in the castle, in order to occupy the enemy and gain valuable time. Kolokotronis initially sent 100 selected men, to whom others were later added, reaching 700. Their leader was Dimitrios Ypsilantis.
The Greeks held the castle until July 24, 1822, and then fled, having previously managed to delay the enemy for 15 days, and to secure time for Kolokotronis’ forces to prepare for the victory at Dervenakia two days later.

Structure, Fortification & Buildings

The walls of the castle of Argos show phases from many different periods, starting from the Mycenaean and reaching the Ottoman period.

The castle took its current form mainly during the First Venetian period (1394-1464), but the older phases are still visible.

There are two enclosures in the castle, one inner and one outer.

The inner enclosure, which was the citadel of the castle, is hexagonal in shape, with a perimeter of 245m and an area of ​​3,200 sq.m. The walls of the citadel are preserved at a great height along the entire perimeter.

The outer enclosure has some peculiarities:
During Antiquity and until the end of the Frankish rule, the outer enclosure protected the entire hill, covering an area of ​​approximately 24,000 sq.m. with a perimeter of 625m. However, the enclosure we see today is considerably smaller than this original fortification, as in the early years of the First Venetian Rule an internal partition wall was built that connected the keep with the eastern and western sides of the outer wall, dividing the outer enclosure transversely into two parts. The southern part, which was more vulnerable, was abandoned, and thus the outer enclosure that exists today covers an area of ​​14,500 sq.m. (including the citadel) with a perimeter of 544 meters.

Little remains of the walls of the old outer enclosure on the south side. It is very likely that parts of them served as building material for the construction of the partition wall.

In addition to the partition wall with its towers and the shortening of the outer enclosure, the Venetians also made other interventions: They strengthened the walls in the citadel by giving them greater height and adding new three-sided and cylindrical towers. The towers were equipped with platforms for small cannons.
Also, outside the Byzantine outer northern wall, a small fortified complex was constructed with two massive cylindrical towers equipped with cannons.

During the Ottoman occupation, a large cylindrical tower was added to the citadel, and a rampart was constructed in front and south of the citadel to protect the gates that were left exposed after the abolition of the southern enclosure. Thus, a small fenced courtyard was created that protected the two gates of the castle, that of the citadel and that of the northern outer enclosure.
In this yard, the new outer gate of the castle was created in contact with the cylindrical tower of the eastern partition. The gate has the form of a vaulted passage with paving stones .

The citadel was equipped with a large Ottoman tower in the SW corner. During the Second Venetian Rule, in 1700, the tower, which was then used as a gunpowder store, was destroyed by an explosion. In its place was built (probably by the Venetians) the surviving bastion of the citadel.

There are large cisterns in the castle. One is located in the middle of the citadel. Another is outside the Venetian walls, on the south side. Three others have been identified attached to the interior wall of the outer enclosure.

At the northern end of the citadel, the foundations of a large church, probably a three-aisled basilica dating from between the 6th and 10th centuries, are preserved. On its remains, a smaller single-aisled church was founded, which also survives in ruins. According to a founding inscription, it is identified with a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, a donation by Bishop Nikitas and the year of acquisition 1174.

Sources