Byzantines and Franks · Village life · Ancient Lerna
A priest for the castle: the will of Gautier de Brienne
1347 Probable
In his will of 1347, Gautier VI de Brienne, Lord of Argos and Nauplia and titular Duke of Athens, names his castle of Chamires. He left sixty hyperpyra a year, from the rent of a cloth shop in Argos, for a priest who had to live in the castle and say mass every day, and fifty more for books, chalices and furnishings. It is the first written mention of the castle, if Chamires is indeed the castle of Kiveri on Pontinos: likely, but not certain.
- Threads
- Village life, Ancient Lerna
- Certainty
- Probable likely, but not fully proven
Pictures
Inked plan of the ruins of Kiveri–Chamires, signed W.S., 5 August 1957, with the “Kirchenruine” in the outer ward and the church of Profitis Ilias below the redoubt. Plan W.S., 5.8.1957 (Schaefer papers, German Archaeological Institute, Athens; supplied by Visit Myloi)
Sources
- Will of Gautier VI de Brienne (1347), as cited by Ι. Βαραλής, Κ. Μπουντούρης, Γ. Τσέκες, «Το Λατινικό κάστρο CHIVERI στους Μύλους Λέρνας» (conference Fortification architecture in the Peloponnese, Loutraki 2011), as cited by Argoliki Vivliothiki, «The Chamires castle» (10-09-2026)
- A. Bon, La Morée franque, Paris 1969
- visitmyloi.gr, «The churches of Myloi» (the lost church in the castle)
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1175–1399
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1479
The castle on Pontinos falls out of use
After the Venetian–Ottoman war of 1463–1479 the castle was allowed to stay in Venetian hands on condition that it was not rebuilt. From then on it gradually disappears from the record; roofs collapsed and the walls began…