Karytaina Castle

Karytaina Castle rises from the Frankish occupation of the 13th century, most likely built in 1245 by Geoffroy de Briel, a French knight born in Greece and a prominent figure in the Chronicle of the Morea. He inherited the barony from his father Hugo, who in 1209 had received one of the twelve baronies of the Principality of Achaia, a holding that comprised 22 fiefs. There are hints that a Byzantine, and perhaps even an ancient, fortification stood on the site beforehand. In 1324, its commander was bribed by the Byzantine lord of Mystras, Andronikos II Palaeologus, and the castle fell to the Byzantines. The Ottomans took it in 1458, and it remained significant as the centre of an administrative region. The Venetians held it briefly between 1687 and 1715. In 1821, it was among the first castles liberated, following Theodoros Kolokotronis's victory at the battle of Karytaina on March 27, an event commemorated on the old 5000 drachma notes. Kolokotronis refortified it in 1826 against Ibrahim Pasha's forces, who failed to take it. Today its condition is not good.