Castle of Kiveri

The Castle of Kiveri stands on the hill of ancient Mount Pontinos, 179 metres above the village of Myloi and the prehistoric mound of Lerna. Though visible from the sea, it is easily overlooked beside the grander fortresses of Argos and Nafplion. The summit once carried the Temple of Athena Saitis and the house of Hippomedon, already ruined in Pausanias' day; now only a chapel of Prophet Elias and the medieval castle remain. The fortification is Frankish, almost certainly built in the 1320s, when the Byzantine advance from Mystras prompted the lords of Argolis to raise Kiveri and Thermisi. It first appears in the will of Gautier de Brienne, dated 1347, and passed to Venice in 1388, only to be seized by the Despot of Mystra until 1394. After 1464 it fell into disrepair, and by the treaty of 1479 Venice held it on condition it never be rebuilt. It vanishes from records thereafter, though in June 1825 General Makrygiannis used its ruins to block Ibrahim Pasha at the battle of Myli. The castle covers 9,500 square metres, with three lines of defence: a pentagonal bailey with seven towers and a two-metre-thick curtain, and a hexagonal redoubt about 30 metres across at the summit.

Heritage data from Wikidata, compiled and verified in the Atika atlas.