Ancient Messene

(Local Name: Messíni) Ancient Messene lies on the slopes of Mt Ithómi (798m/2,618ft), 30km/19mi northwest of Kalamáta, which dominates the landscape of Messenia.

The site of the ancient city, at the village of Mavrommáti, is reached from Kalamáta by way of the modern town of Messíni (30km/19mi). Visitors coming from the north should turn off the main road from Megalópolis at Tsoukalaíika into a road on the right which leads via Lamvaína to Mavrommáti (19km/12mi from Tsoukalaíika).

In the three wars (740-720, 660 and 464-459 B.C.) in which Sparta, Messene's powerful neighbor to the east of the Taygetos range, sought to gain control of Messenia Mt Ithómi was the last refuge of the Messenians. In 455 B.C. Athens offered the last defenders of the hill a new home in the port of Náfpaktos on the Gulf of Corinth. Two years after his victory over Sparta at Leuktra, in 369 B.C., the Theban leader Epameinondas founded the city of Messene on the western and southern slopes of Mt Ithómi. The new foundation was intended, along with Mantineia and Megalópolis, to prevent any resurgence of Spartan power. The city and its immediate territory were surrounded by a wall 9km/6mi long. In the center of the site is the little village of Mavrommáti.

Apart from the theater, stadium, agora and the Temple of Orthia Artemis, it is also worth visiting the Arcadian Dipylon (Double Gate) while in Messíni.