Franchthi

Franchthi is a dry-stone fortification on a coastal hill opposite the village of Koilada in Argolida, its history otherwise unknown. The style of construction is typical of the castles raised in Argolis by the Frankish Dukes of Athens, the De La Roche family, in the early 13th century, though the date is only an inference. The site has suffered badly: a quarry has demolished roughly half of the castle, which in its original form covered about 5,000 square metres within a perimeter of 270 metres. What survives is substantial, with walls 1.80 metres thick built in the characteristic De La Roche manner: two outer faces of semi-finished stones about 25 centimetres long, the gap between them packed with smaller rubble. Larger stones at the wall base may hint at an older, possibly ancient, predecessor. On the hill’s opposite, northwestern side, above the sea, lies the Franchthi cave, 150 metres deep with a 30-metre entrance, celebrated as southeastern Europe’s foremost Stone Age site.