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Small fishing boats in the harbour with the waterfront and Pontinos hill behind

Photo: Fred Kok

History & Mythology

Discover Myloi

Six thousand years of settlement, a monster from Greek myth, a Frankish castle, a battle of the Greek Revolution and a railway junction: all within walking distance of the harbour.

A village where the layers show

Myloi takes its name from the water mills that once turned on the springs of Lerna. Those same springs drew people here in the Neolithic, gave the ancient Greeks their story of the Hydra, and made the village a strategic point for every power that held the Argolid.

On this site we keep two kinds of story apart. History is what archaeology and written sources can show. Legend is what people told about this place. Both belong to Myloi, but you can always see which is which.

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The archaeological site of Lerna with the protective roof over the House of the Tiles

Ancient Lerna

The prehistoric mound and the House of the Tiles.

Ruined castle walls on Pontinos hill seen from above, with a small white chapel

Pontinos, a hill full of stories

Again and again, people have looked at the same hill above Myloi and tried to understand what earlier generations left behind there.

Village stories

  1. Naive painting of the Battle of Myloi in 1825, with the mills, the shore and ships in the gulf
    1825

    The Battle of Myloi

    On 13 June 1825 (Old Style) a few hundred Greeks under Makriyannis, Ypsilantis and Mavromichalis held the mills against Ibrahim Pasha's army: one of the first Greek successes against the Egyptian forces.

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  2. Marble statue of Antinoos, the youth deified by Emperor Hadrian, seen from the front and the side
    Roman era

    Antinoos in Myloi

    A marble statue of Antinoos, the deified favourite of Emperor Hadrian, was found near the village and is now in the care of the Archaeological Museum of Argos.

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  3. 1952–1958

    The man who gave Lerna a face

    American archaeologist John L. Caskey excavated Lerna for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and turned a name from myth into one of the key sites of the Greek Bronze Age.

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  4. Two railcars side by side at Myloi, with the stone station building on the left
    1886

    The railway junction

    The railway reached Myloi on 4 August 1886, and from 1892 the line climbed inland to Tripoli and Kalamata. Five buildings of the junction survive: two stations, a goods warehouse, a café and a stone locomotive shed.

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  5. 1941

    April 1941: headquarters at Myloi

    During the Allied evacuation of Greece, General Henry Maitland Wilson and General Bernard Freyberg both had their headquarters at Myloi on 26 April 1941.

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  6. A blue 1960s Triumph Herald parked in front of the old Myloi railway station
    Today

    Something blue in Myloi

    Kostantinos Doris and his 1960s Triumph Herald, a familiar sight at village weddings.

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Heritage locations

  • History

    Archaeological site of Lerna

    Settlement mound inhabited from the Neolithic to the Mycenaean period; best known for the Early Bronze Age House of the Tiles.

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  • History

    Castle on Pontinos

    Ruins of a medieval castle on the hill above the village, first mentioned in 1347. The white chapel of Profitis Ilias now stands on the summit.

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  • History

    Vasilopoula tower (Tower of the Princess)

    A medieval tower almost ten metres high in a walled court on a ridge south of the village, known locally as the Tower of the Princess.

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  • History

    Myloi railway station

    The junction of the Peloponnese railway from 1886: two stations, a goods warehouse, a café and a stone locomotive shed.

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  • History

    Locomotive shed (1886)

    The large stone shed with two long halls where the trains to Tripoli and Kalamata were kept; the most remarkable building of the station.

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  • Churches

    Chapel of Profitis Ilias

    Small white chapel inside the castle on Pontinos hill; feast day 20 July.

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  • Churches

    Church of the Holy Apostles

    Village church; feast day of the Holy Apostles on 30 June.

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  • History

    Bust of General Makriyannis

    Bust of General Yannis Makriyannis (1797–1864), hero of the Battle of Myloi and author of the famous Memoirs.

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  • Churches

    Church of Agios Dimitrios

    Church on the southern edge of the village, near the springs of Lerna; feast day 26 October.

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