Kalamáta

Kalamáta is famed for its olives. Apparently, unlike other olives, they must mature on the tree and then are hand-picked to prevent bruising, hence their price. They are widely available and we’ve eaten them before, but we wanted to buy some in Kalamáta. Kalamáta, however, was shut down for Easter. We finally got some on our last day there; not quite the lazy Bank Holiday weekend scoffing local olives that I had envisaged.

Kalamáta Easter celebrations   

However, we did watch the Easter celebrations. Along with hundreds of locals, we saw the Churches’ religious artefacts being paraded through the streets. Perhaps not on the grand scale we’d seen in Spain, but nice to see nonetheless. Fireworks regularly lit up the night sky and the streets reverberated with the detonations of large ‘bangers’ set off by the young men of the town. Indeed, most of Greece seems to shake for a couple of weeks around Easter from these explosions.  Our guide book says that the fireworks are set off to echo the sound of the stone being rolled in front of Christ’s tomb. Personally, we think that the Greeks just like fireworks (and immensely loud bangers, some so loud that it sounds more like its full-on explosive liberated from the nearest quarry!), but it’s a nice thought.

Kalamáta steam train museum   

After our day out visiting ancient Sparta and medieval Mystras we felt that we ought to also look around Kalamáta town. Over the weekend, even the restaurants were closed but on Monday 17 April a few restaurants and cafés opened. We wandered up through a narrow area of green park on the line of the old railway. Our route took us past a collection of half a dozen old steam trains and railway platforms and on into the old part of the town.

Kalamáta Museum   

Here we stumbled across the Kalamáta Museum which, pleasingly, was open. The map at the entrance as we walked in showed that there were artefacts from sites all over the region; very much a little bit of everything and we both found that it was hard to work out where it had all come from in the region.

Bronzes from the Tholos Tomb of Nichoria   

A couple of displays stood out. Excavating the Tholos Tomb of Nichoria (1600-1060BC) a treasure trove of bronze was found in a pit dug into the tomb’s floor. The find has made it the region’s most important funerary monument.

Artefacts from the Palace of Nestor   

There was also a small display of finds from the Palace of Nestor (1300-1200BC) which was discovered in 1939. Built circa 1300BC it was 2 stories high and amazingly had at least 105 rooms. It was very grand and dominated area from its hilltop location. Not only did the discovery of the palace help to confirm that Homer’s Odyssey was based on factual events but also a huge archive of Linear B clay tablets was found on the site providing detailed information on the Palace’s political, administrative and economic power in the Southeast Peloponnese before its destruction circa 1200BC. This was particularly interesting display for us because we had tried to visit the palace 2 years ago but had found that it was closed for restoration. It is now open again and we hope to visit the site later this month.

Almost certainly because of the effect of the Easter closings, we never really warmed to the town. As well as the more modern looking cathedral and church buildings, scattered around the old part of the town are several small churches from the Byzantine era. There are some other old buildings but the town has been hit hard by earthquakes in the past and much is either awaiting a spruce-up or is characterless concrete. As we wandered around we also saw many potentially lively bars and cafés but they stood quiet due to the Easter holiday.

Kalamáta Castle   

Our final site to visit was the castle overlooking the town. Here we discovered that until the 6^th century AD the town was ancient Pharai (Kalamáta from 10^th century AD) and that it had been mentioned in Homer’s Iliad as one of the 7 cities that Agamemnon offered to Achilles to placate his anger and convince him to return to the battle against the Trojans (it was predicted that without Achilles the campaign against Troy would be lost). All but nothing has been found from that era and what we saw were the ruins from the medieval and early modern times. The area was regularly fought over between the Venetians and the Turks, even at one stage being blown apart when the powder magazines were deliberately detonated by the Turks as they abandoned the site. Over the 18^th century it became less strategically significant and was eventually abandoned in the 19^th century.

Kalamáta, Greece