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History
: The Mycenaean kingdom of Pylos was conquered by
Neleus
and thereafter was ruled by his youngest son, Nestor.
In 1939 Carl Blegen discovered
at Epano Englianos a site
belonging to that period.
In the 7th - 6th c. BC. a Dorian
settlement named Pylos was
established on Mt. Koryphasion
at the N end of the bay. |
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In 425 BC.,
during the Peloponnesian War, the town was occupied by the
Athenians
, who also captured the island of Sfaktiria
and took its Spartans defenders
prisoner.
In the 13th c. AD. the Crusader
Nicolas
de Saint- Omer built a castle here (Palaiokastro,
the "Old Castle"), which was later successively held by
Venetians and Turks. On 20th of October 1827
the allied fleet under the command of three, - the British
Admiral Sir Edward Codrington,
the French Admiral De Rigny
and the Russian Count von Heyde,
sailed into Navarino Bay to make a show of strength, but a shot fired by the
Turkish and Egyptian fleet unleashed a battle which had not been
intended by the allied governments and which ended in the destruction of
58 out of the 87 Turkish vessels. Their remains can be seen lying on the bottom of
the bay when the sea is calm. The battle gave a decisive new impulse to the
Greek war of liberation. In 1686, the Venetian admiral Morosini
captured Niokastro after a siege and it was turned into the seat of the
Overseer, the Venetian governor of the area. During their period of occupation
(1686-1715), the Venetians repaired and strengthened the castle at many points. |
In 1715, Niokastro was
recaptured by the Turks, who made it the headquarters of the
vilaet of Navarino. It remained in Turkish hands until the
outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 1821,
apart from a brief interlude of a few months in
1770,
when it was captured by the Russian forces under the
Orloff
brothers.
 The castle was surrendered to the Greeks in
1821. At the beginning of 1825,
Ibrahim Pasha
disembarked in the Peloponnese at the head of Egyptian forces and
encamped at Niokastro. The Castle was placed under an
asphyxiating siege lasting three months, during which dramatic
events unfolded both inside and outside it, ending with the
capitulation of the Greeks and the surrender of Niokastro to
Ibrahim.
A leading role in these events was played by the Greek
general Ioannis Makrigiannis, who was left us an
elegant account of them. After the victorius
outcome of the battle of Navarino in
1827,
European doplomacy decided in favour of the creation of an
independent Greek state. Niokastro remained in Ibrahim's hands
until September 1828, however, when it was surrendered to the
French forces of General Maison.
Since 1892,
when it devolved upon the Ephorate of Maritime Antiquities some
of the rooms have been remodelled (after the excavation and
restoration work) to house the Underwater Research Center
for Marine Antiquities. The main architectural
features of Niokastro, which covers an area of about 19 acres,
are the two square bastions on the west-side, which face the sea,
the hexagonal citabel at the south-west edge, and the
fortification wall, which is reinforced with four round towers
and links the individual fortress complexes.
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