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Kalamata

Capital and port of the prefecture. Before the destructive earthquakes of September of 1986, it was one of the most modern cities of Greece, with good street plan, wide roads, squares and parks. Now it is rebuilt. It has 49.550 inhabitants. According to the things found by the excavations it has been proved that Kalamata occupies the area where the ancient city of Phares was built, of which the center was lying in the area of the medieval castle.
Kalamata was a city of political significance since the years of the Venetians domination. In those years, it became base of one of the twelve baronies of Peloponnesus with Godefred Vilarduine or Vilearduine as its leader, who died in 1218 (he was also named "Kalomatis"). Later it was ruled by several leaders. It was successively conquered by the Turks in 1459, by the Venetians in 1685 and then again by the Turks in 1715, till it was liberated. Just before the Greek Revolution of 1821, it was the base of the revolutionists`preparations, and it was the only city of the enslaved Greece which was liberated on March 23 of 1821 by the family of Mauromichaels and Theodor Kolokotronis. There, directly after its liberation, the Messenian Senate was founded while the Declaration of the Greek Revolution was pronounced on March 23 of 1821. The first Greek newspaper in Greek land, the "Greek Trumpet", was published in Kalamata by Theophilus Pharmakidis.
In the late Christian Years, on the castle`s position, there was built a church where the picture of Panagia the "Kalamata" was kept, who gave its name to the city. According to the legents, Phares was one of the seven cities which king Agamenon promiced to give to Achilles, while this city extend its hospitality to Telemachus, the son of Ulysses, when he was looking for his father. Few years after the middles of the 18th BC century, till the end of the 4th BC century, the area of Phares belonged to Sparta, which continued to claim the sovereignty of the area even in the following years.

Worth seeing places:

• The castle. It was built by Godefred Vilarduin on the ruins of the ancient acropolis. In the Byzantine Times, fortifications were built around the castle as well as a monastery. In the following years, repeated additions and repairs were made on the castle, particularly by the Venetians, in the end of the 17th century, of whom the badge, the lion of Saint Mark, is preserved on the cetral entrance of the castle. Ancient stones are attached on the outside enclosure (fortification walls) of the castle, while there are remains of the byzantine fortification, ruins of tower and remains of the outside enclosure. The castle is connected to the history of princess Isabella, who remained in the Greek literature through the historical novel "Princess Izabo" of Angelos Terzakis.

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