ΠΑΛΑΜΗΔΙ

If all the castles are lost

 if all are devastated

 Beautiful Palamidi

will be saved by God.

(folksong)

On our left, before entering the city, there rises Palamidi (220 m. height) praised in many songs. It bears the name of Palamedes the sage. Nowadays there is a drive on the east side. Romantics can climb up all 999 steps, that were rebuilt in Otho's period. Previously one could climb up through the venetian galleries, that are still preserved οn the right of the steps.

Palamidi was fortified by the Venetians ίη the 12th century. The works were started by Morosini the conqueror of the city and were carried on till the last years of the Venetian occupation (1686 - 1715). Besides St. Andrew's bastion which is the tallest, there are six more : Phocio's, Themistocles', Miltiades', Epaminondas', Leonidas', and Achilles'. Five of the bastions are joined by a wall. Achilles and Miltiades are separate forts. In the fort there is the historical church of St. Andrew, built in the Venetian period.

In this group of forts and bastions, that really made Palamidi impregnable, we often see the Venetian coat of arms «St. Mark's lion». The cells of the forts, that during the Regency served as Kolokotronis' prison, were used as both prison and execution rooms. It was here that the brave men of Greece and the Orient, the murderers and the smugglers, were buried, as Venezis says.

At Alonaki, a few steps outside the cast1e the terrible guillotine was standing, which is now found at the Criminal Museum in Athens. Α Nauplian writer, Steph. Daphnes describes like this the last moments of a death convict:

Saint Mark's lions carved in a row

on the bastions, the walls,

venetian buildings, will stand

and their heart will not beat.

And when the iron door is opened

far in the horizon, projected upon the sky there stands the ghost,

with its wings doubled up!

At last a hand will push me

and the sharp blade

like a lightning will fall to separate my sinful body from my soul.

Palamidi was besieged the very first year of the Revolution. The leaders made the right speculation that its possesion would offer the Revolution a bulwark and a proper seat for the Government. After many efforts and failures, on the night of Novem­ber 29th 1822, Staikos Staikopoulos with Moschonissiotis and 350 select soldiers ma­naged to set foot οη Achilles's bastion and subsequently occupy Palamidi. After a while Kolokotronis arrived and made Nauplion's guard surrender and sign a treaty. Every year οη the 30th of November the anniversary of the liberation of the city is celebrated at Nauplion.