NIOKASTRO FORTRESS AND MUSEUMS

Situated on a promontory above the Ionian Sea and the town of Pylos, this mighty 6.5-hectare fortress faces the island of Sphacteria, which closes the bay of Navarino. It houses four museums and exhibitions. Called Niokastro/Νιόκαστρο or Neokastro/Νεόκαστρο ("new castle"), the fortress was built from 1573 by the Ottomans, two years after their defeat at Lepanto, to secure the entrance to the bay, which was already defended to the north by the Frankish-period Paleokastro ("old castle"). Altered several times, including by the French, it forms an irregular triangle with a perimeter of 1,566 m. To the left of the entrance, the Pylos Archaeological Museum is housed in the "Maizonos" building, built in 1830 by General Maison's French expeditionary corps. Among the exhibits are a fine collection of Mycenaean ceramics, coloured glass vases from the Hellenistic period and the two rare bronze statues of the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux, sons of Zeus) dating from the ^3rd century AD. The center of the fortress is occupied by the Metamorfosi tou Sotiros church, a late ^16th-century mosque.

Wrecks and Citadel. To the south of the church, the Museum of Underwater Archaeology is housed in the so-called "Pasha" building, erected by the Egyptian troops of Ibrahim Pasha (son of Mehemet Ali of Kavala) shortly before the arrival of the French. On display here are objects from seven wrecks excavated by divers off the Ionian Islands and Methoni, in particular six headless statues from the Hellenistic period discovered at Cape Xi in Cephalonia, including those of two satyrs and the Greco-Egyptian god Sarapis. The same museum also features an exhibition on the buried villages of the southern Peloponnese in the Makrygiannis Tower, next to the Archaeological Museum. Don't miss the "Citadel", a superb little bastion in the shape of a five-pointed star built by the Venetians, who occupied the fortress from 1686 to 1715. Located high up, it defended the southeast corner of the fortress. Today, it houses an exhibition on the 1827 Battle of Navarin. Finally, you'll enjoy a vast panorama of the bay from the Santa Marina bastion (at the northern tip) and the "Seventh" bastion (which is the oldest, at the southwestern tip). The latter looks directly out over the southern part of Sphacteria and the natural arch of the islet of Tsichli Baba.