A Frankish castle built at the location of the acropolis of the ancient city Sikyon.

History

Ancient Sikyon was an important city-state of ancient Greece which flourished in the Hellenistic period. It was destroyed in 87 BC by the Roman general Sulla. It appears again in History during the Frankish occupation of Moreas as Vasilika or Vasilikata.

According to the aragonese version of the Chronicle of Morea, the castle was built by the second Prince of Achaea Guillaume II de Villehardouin around the middle of the 13th century.

In 1358, it was one of the 8 castles of the Corinth region that were granted to the Florentine banker Niccolo Acciaiuoli as a reward for his services to Roberto II di Taranto and his mother Catherine who were the rulers of the Principality of Achaea. The list of fiefs of 1377 verifies that Vasilica belonged to the Gran Seniscalco, a title that Acciaiuoli had earned as a courtier of the king of Naples.

Later, the castle was a possession of Nerio Acciaiuoli (who managed to become Duke of Athens) who in 1394 left the castle to his daughter Francesca who had married Karolo I Tocco, count of Cephalonia. The castle remained a property of the Toccos until the beginning of the 15th century or, the latest, until 1427 when Constantine Paleologus (Despot of Mystras then and later Byzantine emperor) married Theodora of Tocco acquiring the last Frankish territories of Peloponnese.

From 1446 until 1463 the castle was in Turkish hands. In 1463 it was captured by the Venetians who kept it until 1467. The list of castle of that year marks the castle of Vasilika as being Ottoman.

Vasilika is mentioned by sources during the Tourkokratia but apparently the castle was not any more in use as a stronghold.

Structure, Fortification & Buildings

The Franks built their castle on top of the ancient walls making extensive use of the ancient building material. The most visible element of the Frankish period is a tower 4.8m high which is called Boudroumι, a Turkish name meaning prison.