10 pm
Buongiorno,
This is part 2 of the Pilos emails and the final one, for now, about Greece.
Ru
Pilos Fortress
In my previous email I quoted the Which Guide that Cervantes had been imprisoned in the Fortress at Pilos. Below is the only other information I could find. I do know he was captured and ransomed by his family. However, there is a really old castle and then this newer castle and Cervantes might have been a prisoner at the other castle in Methoni whereas we visited the castle in Pilos.
As a side note, let’s add that Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the author of Don Quixote, fought at Lepanto were he lost the use of his left hand "for the glory of his right," as he himself put it. He is known in the Hispanic world as the Manco de Lepanto (the One-Armed Man of Lepanto).
http://www.aloverofvenice.com/VeniceEast/VeniceEast.html
Bradt Greece: The Peloponnese – Page 152 – Google Books Result
“famous visitors to Methoni during the Ottoman occupation was Cervantes, the … We can presume that he didn’t enjoy it much, as he was a galley slave at the time. … They tore down the old town, which was then mostly within the fortress walls.” http://books.google.it/
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Photo taken when we entered the bay going towards the small harbor. |
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Randal was fascinated with this modern medieval door, beautiful and functional. |
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I liked climbing the rampart on the walls |
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Inner fortress doors |
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Part of the octagonal center |
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Walk overlooking the entrance to the bay |
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Jail cells used during its time as a prison in the 19th and 20th century. |
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Anchors away! I cannot imagine having to pull up that anchor! Not that we pull ours up by hand, the mechanical windless does that. But cruising friends have “pull up by hand” anchors and that must be a real chore. |
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No “No Photo” sign so I took some with the museum setting until I was told by the “person in charge” No Photos. But she was very nice and I’d already taken some, so it worked out. |
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There were tiny fish swimming around in this aquarium display. |
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A floor level exhibit showing sunken ships in different color dots. Jacques Cousteau was involved with some of the excavations. |
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Memorial with the date 1944 and the names of soldiers. |
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The mosque that became a church now being refurbished. |
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Leaving the fortress: our 3 Euro (x2) tickets were quite worth it. There was a group of school kids coming in as we were leaving. I don’t know if our timing was perfect or if we really missed out watching the kids “play fort.” |
