A Monemvasia tour crosses the causeway to the rock island off the coast of Laconia and walks the walled lower town and the upper town of Monemvasia. The tour is one of the Greece Tours on Greece Ville, listed with the other day trips from Athens.
This post covers the formats on sale, the rock and its name, the history of the town, the lower and upper town, Yiannis Ritsos and the questions that come up before booking.
What does a Monemvasia tour visit off the east coast of Laconia?
A Monemvasia tour visits a fortified town on a tied island off the east coast of the Peloponnese, in Laconia. A tombolo 400 metres long joins the rock to the mainland, and the walled town dates from the sixth century.
Monemvasia is a town and municipality in Laconia, Greece. The town stands on a tied island surrounded by the Myrtoan Sea. A sandy isthmus, or tombolo, links the island to the rest of the mainland.
The rock is mostly a large plateau about 100 metres above sea level. It measures up to 300 metres wide and 1 kilometre long. The walled town sits on the south-east slope, above Palaia Monemvasia bay.
Founded in the sixth century, Monemvasia ranks among the oldest continually inhabited fortified towns in Europe. It grew into a major trading centre of the Eastern Mediterranean. Its walls and Byzantine churches remain in place.
A Monemvasia tour covers the old town on the rock rather than the wider municipality. The seat of that municipality is the town of Molaoi, not Monemvasia itself.
- Municipality: The current municipality formed in 2011 from five former municipalities, including Molaoi and Zarakas.
- Streets: A large share of the streets are narrow and fit only for pedestrian and donkey traffic.
- Lighthouse: A lighthouse at the eastern end of the island was built in 1896 and began operation in 1897.
- Climate: Monemvasia has a very hot-summer Mediterranean climate with mild winters.
A Monemvasia tour therefore covers a whole walled town rather than a single ruin. The sections below set out the formats, the history and the main monuments.
Which Monemvasia tour formats are on sale for travellers?
A Monemvasia tour is on sale in multi-day, tasting, private and shore formats. The listings cover a castle and local flavours tour with Sparta, tours from Athens, wine, honey and olive oil tastings, a highlights tour and a tour from Nafplio.
One format pairs the rock with Sparta under the theme of castles, legends and local flavours. A second option is a 2-day private tour of the Peloponnese that covers Sparta and Monemvasia.
Another 2-day tour starts from Athens and stops in Sparta. A 3-day format links Athens, Sparta, water caves and a medieval castle city. A private Monemvasia tour of the highlights centres on the walled town.
Tasting formats focus on local produce. One listing offers wine, honey and olive oil, and another adds local delicacies to a wine tasting. A further Monemvasia tour lists wine, liquors, olive oil and bee honey.
Two formats start outside Athens. One reaches Monemvasia Castle from Nafplio. A private shore tour covers the castle town highlights for passengers who arrive at the rock by sea.
- Sparta: Four listings pair the rock with Sparta, the city whose inhabitants founded Monemvasia.
- Tastings: Three listings centre on wine, honey, olive oil, liquors and local delicacies.
- Private: Three formats run as private tours, including a shore tour and a 2-day route.
- Starting points: The titles name Athens and Nafplio as departure points.
One 2-day format from Athens also visits the site described on the Mystras tour page. The tour cards and availability boxes on this page list live dates for each format.
What do the rock, causeway and name reveal on a Monemvasia tour?
A Monemvasia tour reaches the rock across a tombolo 400 metres long, part of which was cut in 1890 for ships and boats. The name joins the Greek words moni and emvasis and means the city of the single approach.
An earthquake in 375 AD separated the rock from the mainland. Only a narrow tombolo, a sandy isthmus, stayed in place to connect the two. This strip forms the causeway that a Monemvasia tour crosses.
In 1890 a small part of the tombolo was cut to create an artificial bridge for ships and boats. In 1971 a bridge on the western side linked the town to the EO86 road.
The name comes from two Greek words. Moni means single and emvasis means approach. Together they give the meaning city of the single approach, or entrance. In Greek the name has three written forms.
Older names survive too. Pausanias called the site Akra Minoa, the Minoan Promontory. Under Ottoman rule the town was Menexe in Greek and Menekşe in Turkish, both meaning violet.
- Nickname: The town is known as the Gibraltar of the East.
- Water: The rock has no natural water sources, so cisterns and reservoirs held the supply.
- Ancient port: Traces of a port from antiquity have been found underwater.
- Hamlet: A small hamlet of about ten houses lies to the northwest.
A Monemvasia tour follows the road from the bridge over the causeway to the west gate. This is the main gate of the lower town.
What history does a Monemvasia tour cover from founding to independence?
A Monemvasia tour covers a history that began in the sixth century, when people from Sparta settled the rock. Byzantine, papal, Venetian and Ottoman rulers held the town in turn until the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 1821.
Monemvasia was founded in the sixth century by inhabitants of ancient Sparta, then called Lacedaemon. The Chronicle of Monemvasia links the move to a Slav raid in 587-588, though archaeology does not support that date.
From the 7th century Monemvasia grew into a commercial and cultural centre on sea routes to Sicily. In 1147 ships of the Sicilian king Roger II tried to capture it and withdrew with heavy losses.
The years up to 1460 form the golden age of the town. In 1460 the inhabitants offered the city to Pope Pius II. By the end of 1463 Monemvasia had passed fully to the Venetians.
The Siege of Monemvasia began on 15 March 1821, at the start of the Greek War of Independence. After a four-month siege by land and sea, the fortress surrendered to the Greeks on 23 July 1821.
- Ottoman rule: A treaty of 2 October 1540 handed Monemvasia and Nafplio to the Ottomans.
- Venetian return: Girolamo Corner entered the town for Venice on 12 August 1690.
- Second Ottoman rule: The town surrendered to the Ottomans again on 7 September 1715.
- Orlov revolt: In 1770 the local metropolitan armed a body of Monemvasians against the Ottomans.
Nafplio was the other Venetian possession handed over in 1540. The Nafplio day trip page covers that town, and a Monemvasia tour covers the rock.
Which walls, gates and churches does a Monemvasia tour see?
A Monemvasia tour walks through the lower town on the southern coast and climbs to the upper town on the plateau. The route passes fortified gates, the Church of Christ Elkomenos in the central square and Hagia Sophia near the cliff edge.
The lower town lies under the southern wall of the upper town. Walls close it on the east, south and west. Its main street, the Byzantine Middle Street, is lined with shops.
Elkomenos Christ square sits where the main street meets the road down from the upper town. The metropolitan church, the former mosque and the episcopal palace stand around it.
The Church of Christ Elkomenos is the metropolitan church of Monemvasia. It is a domed three-aisled basilica, first built in the 6th century AD. An inscription above the west door marks works completed in 1697.
A winding path climbs from the lower town to a fortified gate of the upper town. Hagia Sophia stands near the cliff edge. Its dome is 7 metres across and has 16 windows.
- Goulas: The upper town walls are known as Goulas, and the greater part dates from Venetian and Ottoman times.
- Portello: The road from the upper town leads down to a sea wall gate called the portello.
- Former mosque: The mosque in Elkomenos square has housed the archaeological collection since 1999.
- Agios Nikolaos: An inscription states that Andrea Licinio built this church in 1703.
A Monemvasia tour links both levels by the same winding path. The upper town is no longer inhabited, as residents abandoned it after the second Venetian occupation.
How does a Monemvasia tour recall Yiannis Ritsos and the town today?
A Monemvasia tour visits the home town of Yiannis Ritsos, a Greek poet born there in 1909. Today the old town on the rock attracts rising numbers of tourists, and a number of its restored medieval buildings now serve as hotels.
Ritsos was born to a landowning family in Monemvasia. As a child he lost his mother and eldest brother to tuberculosis, and his family was ruined economically. These losses marked his poetry.
He published Tractor in 1934 and Pyramids in 1935. His poem Epitaphios followed in 1936 and, set to music by Mikis Theodorakis, became an anthem of the Greek Left in the 1950s.
Ritsos ranks among the great Greek poets of the twentieth century. He won the Lenin Peace Prize in 1975 and was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973. He died in 1990.
From the 1970s Monemvasia began to flourish again as a tourist destination. Residents sold houses to visitors, who restored them. Alexandros and Harris Kalliga played a key role in the restorations.
- Gefyra: The village of Gefyra, opposite the rock, had 1,299 inhabitants in the 2011 census.
- Celebration: Each 23 July the main port holds an independence day celebration and burns a ship filled with pyrotechnics.
- Utilities: The town relied on cisterns for water until 1964, and electricity arrived in 1972.
- Film: The 1986 horror film The Wind was shot in Monemvasia.
A Monemvasia tour covers Byzantine and later history in Laconia. The Mycenae Epidaurus day trip page covers two further sites in the Peloponnese for travellers planning a wider route.
What do travellers ask about a Monemvasia tour?
A Monemvasia tour raises four common questions. Travellers ask where formats start, whether a tasting option exists, what the upper town holds and how the rock connects to the mainland. The answers below draw on the tour listings and the town’s history.
Does a Monemvasia tour leave from Athens or Nafplio?
Both starting points appear in the listings. One 2-day tour starts from Athens, and a 3-day tour links Athens with Sparta and water caves. A separate Monemvasia tour reaches the castle from Nafplio. A private shore tour serves passengers who arrive by sea, and a private highlights tour focuses on the town itself.
Is there a Monemvasia tour with a tasting?
Yes. Three listings centre on local produce. One offers wine, honey and olive oil. Another pairs a wine tasting with local delicacies in Monemvasia. A third Monemvasia tour presents wine, liquors, olive oil and bee honey. A castle tour with Sparta also lists local flavours in its title.
What does the upper town hold on a Monemvasia tour?
The upper town covers the plateau above the lower town and is no longer inhabited. It held the acropolis, a rectangular fortress with four towers built in the 6th century, plus houses, churches, cisterns and administrative buildings. Three large public reservoirs lie in its western part, near an Ottoman fountain.
How does the rock link to the mainland on a Monemvasia tour?
A tombolo, or sandy isthmus, 400 metres long connects the rock to the mainland. An earthquake in 375 AD left only this narrow strip. A bridge on the western side has linked Monemvasia to the EO86 road since 1971. The village of Gefyra stands opposite the rock.