Explore Tolo

During the year, celebrations and events take place in Tolo. The Calendar starts with The Epiphany on January 6, an ecclesiastical holiday in the port of Tolo. Τhe Carnival that takes place at the end of February or the beginning of March depending on the date of Easter and it’s a full weekend of masquerades finishing with Ash Monday traditional feast. Greek Orthodox Easter is worth experiencing, every day morning and evening church service, choir and lots of people. An exceptional event worth seeing is the procession of the Epitaph, which is held along the streets, the coast and in the sea for the young men carrying the Epitaph. Glorious celebration for the resurrection of Christ on midnight of Good Saturday with lots of fireworks and firecrackers. Nafplio Marathon run usually takes place on the first Sunday of March.
March 25th is national holiday with school parade.
May 20-21 TOLO FEST in the port of Tolo. Nafplio Festival June-July with musical events in historical places of Nafplio. End of June Music and dance event with traditional dances by amateur groups.
Mark as highlight of course the “Epidaurus ancient theater Festival” July and August every Friday and Saturday evening.
Every summer, the “celebration of the full moon” is held under the full moon of August with various events taking place. At the end of September, the celebration of the fishermen, is held. It is the festival of the fishermen marking the beginning of the whitebait fishing season and is accompanied by fish, wine, dancing and singing.
28th October is national holiday with school parade and last the castle run last Sunday of November.

The Ancient Acropolis of Asini is found on top of a hill jutting out into the sea, roughly one km before Tolo, 7 km from Nafplio. Discoveries during excavations show that the area was populated during the Bronze Age and reached as far as Myceanae during the Pre-Geometric and Geomatric Ages. Today are traces of a pre-historic settlement, parts of the imposing polygonal structure of the acropolis as well as Hellenic towers constructed in the Middle Ages. Mycenaen, Hellenistic and Roman graves have been discovered. The first residents of Asini were Dryopes. Dryopes are considered descendants of Pelasgon of most ancient residents of Greece. The Dryopes initially lived in the region between the mountains Oiti and Parnassos, a barren ground that was known as Dryopis, because the many dryon that it had. The reach of their culture is placed round 1300 bc. According to Greek mythology the Dryopes were expelled from Dryopida by Hercules who occupied their fortified city. According to mythology once again, the Dryopes relocated in the Peloponnese as suppliants to the king Eyrysthea, who, as an opponent of Hercules gave them the Argolic cityof Asini. The Dryopes founded by themselves Nemea. The Dryopes considered Dryops was their their fabulous leader and their first king in Oiti. Also attributed to the Dryopes is the construction of the Drakospiton, 23 megalithic monuments that are found only in south-eastern Evia.

During the Mycenaen Era, Asini was connected by road with Mycenae and constituted their port. Homer writes that between the two cities they had taken part in the Trojan War and sent more than 40 boats from Asini. The city was ruled by the Argeites 740 BC. (or 700), despite the heroic resistance of the residents, which finally abandoned the place. The Argeites completely destroyed the city, except for the temple of Pythaea Apollo. The residents relocated to Messinia and there they built a new city. During the Hellenic Era years the city of Asini was rebuilt with a wall around to protect it. In 1922 the excavations of Swedish Archaeological Faculty of Athens discovered relics from fortifications from 2000 BC and from the 3rd century BC. Also, on the adjoining hill, a Mycenaen Necropolis and other graves from the Geometric Era in which a lot of interesting objects were found. Ruins of graves were also found from the Hellenic and Roman Eras.

Georgios Seferis, one of the most important Greeks writers, gained the Nobel prize in Literature in 1963. He put the ancient harbour near Nafplio back on the map in his poem the King of Asini, from the collection of poems of Deck Diaries B. The poem is a tribute to lost time, the human existence and the futility of glory. The king of Asine, who was in power in the Mycenean period, Seferis says was a leader of his times, and took decisions that influenced the lives of others, an opinion that had been lost in history but is detailed in the Iliad.

The name of the town in Greek is Ναύπλιο or, and in Ancient Greek Ναύπλιον (thus the transliteration Nafplion). As is the case with many Greek names, there is more than one possible Latin transliteration. Currently, the most commonly used English spelling is Nafplion (or sometimes Nafplio like the Modern Greek way of saying it). Many sources, especially those dealing with the ancient city, refer to it by its Latin name of Nauplion. In other languages it is known variously as Nauplia, Navplion, Nauplio, Nafplion and Anapli. These names would have been current in English during the periods of Venetian and Ottoman domination. The city itself includes many praiseworthy monuments, such as the imposing Venetian arms depot, the Mosque in Syntagmatos square, the church of Saint Spyridonas, , the Bavarian lion, and other buildings along the promenade which compose this rare architectural and urban plan whole making Nafplio distinguish as the best preserved example of a neoclassical city of the 19th century.

The fortress complex of Nafplio is extensive and imposing. The oldest fortress is Akronafplia and on the opposite rocky hill, towering above the town, the famous Palamidi and in the harbour he Bourtzi. All three castles are remarkable not only for their archaeological importance but also for their incredible adjustment in the place’s topography.

Bourtzi
This small fortress is found in front of the harbour, in the shallow waters, and was connected, during the old times, by chains with the land, which is also the reason it was called Porto Cadena. It was built between 141 and 1473 and is made up of a tall octagonal shaped tower surrounded by lower semi-circular towers for canons facing East and West. During the Turkish rule the Turks filled the surrounding sea with stones acting as an obstacle for shipping. In later years the Bourtzi housed convicts awaiting execution. These days it is possible to visit the Bourtzi via a few minutes ride on a fishing boat whereby one has an unrivalled view of the harbour and old city of Nafplion.
Akronafplia
The oldest part of the city of Nafplio. Until the 13th century, it was a town on its own. The arrival of the Venetians and the Franks transformed it into part of the town fortifications. Later, part of it was used as a prison until the Greek government decided that the view provided from its location would benefit the local tourism and built a hotel complex which still stands there today.
The Palamidi Castle
The idea for the Palamidi was thought of by Morosini, Corner & Grimani although the plans were eventually made by Grimani and carried out by Agostino Sagredo. The complex consists of eight strongholds joined and protected by one wall. Inside the bastion of the fortress lies the church of Saint Andrew. It has a hemicylindrical dome and its half east side steals into one of the arches that support the walk of the walls. The open part of the church is double-aisled. The construction was completed within three years (1711-1714). One year later (1715) the Turkish Army of 100,000 entered the Peloponnese and took the Palamidi and Acronafplia for their own uses. During its history the Palamidi has been used many times as a prison for high security convicts. The fortress can be reached in two ways, one by road through the neighbourhood of Pronoia and the other via the rumoured 999 steps from the edge of the old city.

Nafplion Archaeologocal Museum

The Museum is situated in the three floor building heading Syntagmatos Square built in 1713 which was used at one time as a barracks and storage space for the Navy. The archaelogical collection is remarkable containing Prehistoric and Mycenaen findings from the entire Argolida. It also accomodates excellent pottery from the first Mycenaen times with themes taken from a conquered naturalism. These beautiful pieces come from the graves in Dendra (Midea), Prosimni and Kazarma. The most revered possesion of the museum is the copper suit of armour dating back to 1450 – a unique discovery – from the chamber grave in Dendra, together with the guns and other articles of the dead leader. On the second floor of the building, among the exhibits, the guns and the helmet of a warrior of post-mycenaen times can be found. A priceless collection of pots and weapons of early-geometric and geometric times from Asini and Tirintha, as well as a statuette and other items from the ancient temple in Tirintha are kept in the halls of the museum.

Trianon
Another building of historical significance, during the Turkish rule this building was a mosque. Today it is used as a theatre.

The Bavarian Lion

Chiselled from rock by the sculptor Siegel close to the suburbs of the neighbourhood of Pronoia by order of Ludvic, the King of Bavaria and father of Otto in honour of the Bavarians who died during the typhoid epidemic in Nafplio which devastated the area beteween 1833/34.