A Journey Back in Time: The Newly Restored Bourtzi Castle in Nafplio

The boat experience from Nafplio to the tiny islet of Bourtzi gives panoramic views of the Previous City of Nafplio, the Fortress of Palamidi and the small peninsula that hosts the guts of the city. The entire journey is just a few minutes lengthy however it takes you again centuries in time. As quickly as you disembark on the fort in the course of the bay, you may really feel the great weight of the historical past of this small islet, a rocky outcropping that hosts one of the well-known fortifications ever been in-built Greece.

With its stout partitions and towers, this Fifteenth-century fortress protected the Venetians, held out valiantly in opposition to the Ottomans till it fell, and later witnessed the arrival on the town of Ioannis Kapodistrias, the primary ruler of Fashionable Greece, in addition to that of King Otto, its first monarch. With Greece’s liberation from the Ottoman Empire, the fort turned dwelling to convicts compelled to behave as executioners (together with the infamous “bloodthirsty” Ioannis Amoiradakis) who carried out their duties by guillotine. “Oh, magnificent cave that hides such a monster,” Andreas Karkavitsas, a Greek novelist, as soon as wrote about this place the place those that have been burdened with probably the most horrid activity conceivable as soon as lived and labored.

Having learn as a lot as attainable in regards to the islet, I made a decision to go to the fortress, which had just lately reopened its doorways after years of restoration works. I went there with the person who, from 2014 to 2021, was entrusted with finishing up that work. Architect and engineer Kostas Bountouris is aware of each sq. inch of Bourtzi just like the again of his hand, as he was chargeable for coordinating the numerous employees who have been concerned in its restoration.

He defined, amongst different issues, how he’d encountered difficulties when port works disadvantaged Bourtzi of water and electrical energy for lengthy intervals of time, delaying completion of the challenge. He additionally stated that greater than 500 tons of development supplies had been unloaded on the small dock in the midst of the work.

The primary to welcome us as we stepped off the boat was a cat – Vangelis – that had inadvertently stowed away on a cement boat a few years in the past and located himself a resident of this historic island. He eluded all makes an attempt that have been made to catch him and take him again to city, and remained on the fortress with the guards. At present, Vangelis is the islet’s unofficial mascot. 

Bountouris recounted how, in 1930, Panagiotis Kostouros, a neighborhood businessman from Nafplio, transformed Bourtzi – which he had leased from the Greek Nationwide Tourism Group – into the primary lodge in Greece to ever go on to grow to be a monument. Kostouros was helped in his efforts by the German architect Wulf Schaeffer; thankfully, the interventions that have been made didn’t do any irreparable harm to the fortress.

The restaurant linked to the power didn’t have a reputation, however the lodge’s few rooms hosted many figures who wished to expertise the distinctive ambiance of the place, together with the Greek poets Andreas Embirikos and Matsi Hatzilazarou, the English author and scholar Patrick Leigh Fermor, and others. Archaeologists have preserved one of many lodge rooms in order that guests can get a way of the pioneering hospitality that passed off right here; though it didn’t provide many luxuries, the lodgings left visitors totally impressed. As in my opinion, I departed the small island with the sensation that I had left behind a time capsule nicely price visiting.