Oleni

The castle of Olena is the remnant of a substantial medieval town that once occupied a flat hilltop about a kilometre east of the modern village of Oleni, near Pyrgos. The Byzantines probably raised its fortifications in the ninth century, and the town covered some 50,000 square metres. Its importance came from being the seat of the diocese of Elia, a see made prominent by its proximity to Ancient Olympia, the old stronghold of paganism. Under the Franks in the thirteenth century it was the second most populous town in the region, though the gate that survives dates from that Frankish period. The episcopal seat was moved to Andravida in 1205, and the town passed between Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman control over the following centuries. By the late seventeenth century the Venetians reported it destroyed. Little remains today beyond the gate and scattered ruins. The small nineteenth-century church of Episkopi stands on the site of the Byzantine Metamorphosis church, near the medieval cemetery, while Agios Georgios sits directly below the castle.