Kyparissia Castle #1074

Description

Kyparissia was an ancient city that contributed 11 ships to the Trojan War under Nestor, the king of Pylos. During the Byzantine era, a fortress was erected on the site of the ancient acropolis. After the Franks conquered the Peloponnese in 1205, Arcadia, the medieval name for Kyparissia since the 10th or 11th century, became part of the Prince of Achaea's domain. The Franks rebuilt the old Byzantine fortress in the 13th century.

Although Arcadia was not one of the original twelve secular baronies of the Principality, it was initially part of the Villehardouin family's princely domain. It was later established as a separate barony by Prince Guillaume II de Villehardouin, shortly after the Byzantine recapture of Constantinople in 1261, to reward Vilain d’Aulnay, a Frankish lord from the Latin Empire who had sought refuge in Achaea.