Pylos

Also known as Navarino

Pylos (, ; ), historically also known as Navarino, is a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part of the municipality Pylos-Nestoras, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. It was the capital of the former Pylia Province. It is the main harbour on the Bay of Navarino. Nearby villages include Gialova, Pyla, Elaiofyto, Schinolakka, and Palaionero. The town of Pylos has 2,568 inhabitants, the municipal unit of Pylos 4,559 (2021). The municipal unit has an area of 143.911 km2.

AI overview

Pylos is a town in the Messenia region of southern Greece that serves as the main harbor on the Bay of Navarino and is the administrative center of the Pylos-Nestoras municipality. With a population of around 2,500 people in the town itself, it is historically significant as the former capital of Pylia Province and remains an important port in the area.

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Place details

Locality: Πύλος
Region: Περιφέρεια Πελοποννήσου
Country: Ελλάς
Population: 2,345
Timezone

Travel guide

Understand

The area of Pylos has a variety of landscapes to visit, with their own marvelous geomorphological history.

The western limestone-ridge The city of Pylos is built on a limestone-ridge which goes north-south. It starts in the south at the town of Methoni, runs to the west of the road Methoni-Pylos where it creates one of the highest hills in the region, Ayos Nikolaos, before it dips to the city of Pylos. To the north of Pylos, the limestone-ridge is interrupted creating a set of connections between the bay of Navarino and the Ionian sea. Also the amazing bay of Voidokilia is such an interruption in the limestone ridge. It is here that the waves of the Ionian sea created one of the most spectacular beaches of Greece. The breaking up of the limestone ridge caused the creation of the uninhabited island of Sphacteria. The island of Sphacteria has a very steep eastern cliff. This is because there is a north-south fault-line running here, and you are looking at a fault-mirror. This means that the island was lifted and the area, which is now the bay of Navarino, dropped. This happened during the creation of the Alpine mountains (Tertiary era). The limestone ridge is not very fertile, and is covered by bushes, low grasses and herb vegetation (maquis). A great place to see snakes. It is mainly used to let sheep and goats graze. Although limestone is known for karst phenomena such as caves and dolines, the number of this kind of phenomena is very limited. Nevertheless, there is a nice …

Get in

thumb|Voidokilia Bay thumb|Glossa beach There are good bus connections from and to the nearby towns of Methoni,Kalamata and Kiparissia. Connections from these towns can get you further to Patras and Athens You can get to Kalamata airport from several European countries. The taxi services in Pylos (departing from the taxi rank in the main square) are much used. Don't hesitate to ask the price to get to and from Kalamata or Methoni.

Get around

50cc scooters are for rent from Martin's shop in Gialova. You will need to get a bus to Gialova from Pylos to reach the shop. There is a taxi stand at the main square. There is a bus-stop at the main square. From there you get to the main towns around Pylos.

See

Top 10 things to see in and around Pylos: Sunset over the Bay of Navarino and Sphacteria or at Gargaliani beach.

Do

Boat tour around the area of Sphacteria. Boattrips are offered in the harbour of Pylos. The boat trips bring you to the lighthouse at the entrance of the bay of Navarino or Sphacteria.

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Article

34 sections

Contents

Name
History
Neolithic Pylos
Mycenaean Pylos
Classical Pylos
Middle Ages
First Venetian and first Ottoman periods
Second Venetian period and Ottoman reconquest
The Greek War of Independence of 1821
The Naval Battle of Navarino (20 October 1827)
The liberation of Pylos (6 October 1828) and the construction of the modern city
20th century
21st century
Geography
Site
Communication
Population
Urban landscape
Navarino castles
Navarino aqueduct
Pylos city center
The central square of the Three Admirals
Churches
The port and the marina
Around Pylos
The Palace of Nestor
The Archaeological Museum of Chora
The lagoon of Gialova and the beaches of Voïdokilia and Divari
Events
Notable people
See also
References
Sources
External links

Pylos has been inhabited since Neolithic times. It was a significant kingdom in Mycenaean Greece, with the remains of the so-called "Palace of Nestor" excavated nearby, named after Nestor, the king of Pylos in Homer's Iliad. In Classical times, the site was uninhabited, but became the site of the Battle of Pylos in 425 BC, during the Peloponnesian War. After that, Pylos is scarcely mentioned until the 13th century, when it became part of the Frankish Principality of Achaea. Increasingly known by its French name of Port-de-Jonc or its Italian name Navarino, in the 1280s the Franks built the Old Navarino castle on the site. Pylos came under the control of the Republic of Venice from 1417 until 1500, when it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans used Pylos and its bay as a naval base, and built the New Navarino fortress there. The area remained under Ottoman control, with the exception of a brief period of renewed Venetian rule from 1685–1715 and a Russian occupation from 1770–71, until the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 1821. Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt recovered it for the Ottomans in 1825, but the defeat of the Turco-Egyptian fleet in the 1827 Battle of Navarino and the French military intervention of the 1828 Morea expedition forced Ibrahim to withdraw from the Peloponnese and confirmed Greek independence. The current city was built outside the fortress walls by the military engineers of the Morea expedition from 1829 and the name Pylos was revived by royal decree in 1833.