#acrocorinth

At about 80 km from Athens, where the Peloponnese peninsula starts, an imposing fortress stands on the Acrocorinth, the acropolis of ancient Corinth. The archaeological site, sitting on a 575-metre monolithic rock that dominates the plain, offers an extraordinary view towards the sea and has a history steeped in legend.

History

The Acrocorinth was continuously occupied from the archaic period until the early 19th century. Its fortress, one of the most impressive ones in Greece, is built on foundations dating from the Hellenistic period (3rd century BC). At that time, the city of Corinth was (together with Demetrias in Thessaly and Chalcis on the island of Euboea) one of the three "fetters of Greece", that is, garrison points used by Philip V of Macedon to control the Greek city-states.

Castles in Greece

Acrocorinthos 1987.

Acrocorinth (Greek: Ακροκόρινθος), "Upper Corinth", the acropolis of ancient Corinth, is a monolithic rock overseeing the ancient city of Corinth, Greece. "It is the most impressive of the acropoleis of mainland Greece," in the estimation of George Forrest.[1] Acrocorinth was continuously occupied from archaic times to the early 19th century. Along with Demetrias and Chalcis, the Acrocorinth during the Hellenistic period formed one of the so-called "Fetters of Greece" - three fortresses garrisoned by the Macedonians to secure their control of the Greek city-states. The city's archaic acropolis, already an easily defensible position due to its geomorphology, was further heavily fortified during the Byzantine Empire as it became the seat of the strategos of the thema of Hellas and later of the Peloponnese. It was defended against the Crusaders for three years by Leo Sgouros.

Afterwards it became a fortress of the Frankish Principality of Achaea, the Venetians and the Ottoman Turks.[clarification needed]With its secure water supply, Acrocorinth's fortress was used as the last line of defense in southern Greece because it commanded the Isthmus of Corinth, repelling foes from entry into the Peloponnese peninsula. Three circuit walls formed the man-made defense of the hill. The highest peak on the site was home to a temple to Aphrodite which was converted to a church, and then became a mosque. The American School's Corinth Excavations began excavations on it in 1929. Currently, Acrocorinth is one of the most important medieval castle sites of Greece.

In a Corinthian myth related in the 2nd century CE to Pausanias, Briareus, one of the Hecatonchires, was the arbitrator in a dispute between Poseidon and Helios, between the sea and the sun: his verdict was that the Isthmus of Corinth belonged to Poseidon and the acropolis of Corinth (Acrocorinth) to Helios.[2][3]

Views from atop the Acrocorinth in Corinth, Greece.