The Mycenaean Civilization (c. 1700-1100 BC) named after their major center, a city called Mycenae aprox 20kms North from Nafplio, the first capital of the modern Greece. Their civilization flourished during the Late Bronze Age. The Mycenaean Civilization was influenced by the Minoan one which had flourished during the Early Bronze Age and started from Knossos, Crete. The Mycenaeans dominated most of the Greek Mainland and some of the Greek Islands and had trade relations with Cyprus, Levant and Egypt.

The Mycenaeans were Greeks who created their own culture influenced by the Minoan and other Mediterranean cultures. Some of the major centers of the Mycenaean civilization were located in the Eastern Peloponnese region including, Mycenae, Tiryns, Argos, Midea, and Sparta. The largest city of all the above is the Mycenae were even today visitors can admire the citadel, tholos tombs from the 16th century BC, shaft graves, the Cyclopean Walls and the Lion Gate, the entrance made from huge stones and having the famous pair of lions.

At all the Mycenean centers there are complex buildings, all of them sharing common architecture features. All the buildings were built around a large rectangular central hall or Megaron. The Megaron consisted of an entrance porch, a vestibule and the hall itself. This was the main area of the palace that contained a large circular hearth with four wooden columns supporting a holed ceiling. Usually there was a second smaller hall, the Queens Megaron, many private apartments and other areas such as storage, administration and manufacturing. The rooms in the palace were constructed with rubble fill and cross-beamed walls that were covered with limestone blocks at the outside, plaster inside and were richly decorated with fresco paintings.

At the outside of the complex there was a huge wall, consists of huge stones that were called the Cyclopean walls, taking their name from the Cyclopes. People could not imagine how can someone move these walls rather than the Cyclopes. The Cyclopean Walls were up to 13m (42.6ft) high and up to 8m (26ft) thick. Mycenaeans used to include a terrace at the agricultural lands, damns for flood management and small bridges that were built from stone blocks.

Find the 5 MUST SEE archeological sites to visit in Greece – Click HERE.

One of the most well-known landmarks of the city of Nafplio is the main fortress in the city, the Palamidi Fortress. In the old times where there were not cars and gps people who wanted to reach Nafplio were using Palamidi as the point of direction in order to know how to reach the city. Built in the highest point of the city, on top of the 216m hill, Palamidi is visible even from many kilometers away.

So, Palamidi is the final important fortress that was built from Venetians’ outside of their own country. They started the construction in 1711 and by 1714 the massive fortress was already built. One year after the completion of the Fortress the Turks defeated and took control of the castle. During 1822, when Greeks won their independence, in one night they were able to take control of the city by controlling the Palamidi fortress.

The Palamidi, which takes its name by the Homeric hero Palamidis, was built based on the design of Giaxich and Lasalle and was based on a system of mutually supporting and mutually defending bastions, which are all connected each other and were built in different levels and with different directions in order to protect the city.

The Aghios Andreas bastion that was the best equipped was the headquarters. Each occupant of the fortress was changing the name of the bastion with heroes or important people form their nation. Nowadays the names of the bastions come from Geek people that are directly connected with the Greek history.  To the North of the fortress there are the Leondias and Miltiadis bastions, to the North-West the Robert one, to the South the Themistocles and to the East side is the Achilles bastion. All the above bastions were constructed by the Venetians while the last one, the Epameinondas was completed during the Turkish occupations and the Fokion one was entirely built by the Turks.

In the 29^th November of 1822, Staikos Staikopoulos lead a unit of Greek rebels and within one night was able to take control of the Palamdi fortress with a surprise attach that started from the bastion of Achilles.

Some of the bastions of Palamidi were used as a prison later on the history. In 1833, Theodoros Kolokotronis, one of the leaders of the revolution, was imprisoned in Palamidi, during the time of the regency, when King Otto was still a minor. The Miltiadis bastion was converted also as a prison from 1840 till around 1926.

There are two ways to reach the top of the Palamidi hill, either by car driving around the hill or by the staircases that are located at the West of the fortress and lead to downtown Nafpio. Locals still support that there are 999 steps and the last one was destroyed by Kolokotronis’ horse. Some support that this story was created by some people who wanted to emphasize how greedy was Theodoros Kolokotronis. Once you are in the Palamidi fortress you can see the impressive water tanks that are used even today to collect rainwater.