Methóni - Castle

The castle at Methóni is entered on a bridge built by French troops in 1828 over the deep castle moat. To the right of the first gate are two strong Venetian bastions of the 15th and early 18th centuries. Inside the gate we turn left through a long outer ward, pass through two further gates and enter the spacious inner ward, in which is the granite Morosini Column, with a Byzantine capital.

To the right is a gate leading into the Citadel, with the remains of Turkish buildings. The wall on the west (seaward) side rises directly above the edge of the rock. At the south end of the fortress we pass through a gate flanked by towers and along a causeway to an octagonal structure of the Turkish period, the Bourdzi (16th C.), from which there is a view of the islands of Sapiéntza and Skhíza.

Returning along the wall-walk on the east side of the chapel, we see the remains of an imposing building abutting the walls and, beyond this, a gate opening on to the bay, with coats of arms on the outside.