Πάτρα/Patras, a pitstop tour
On the Peloponnese, hooray! Because of the forecast for storms, we only stayed for a few hours in Patras, as we wanted to travel further south by nightfall. Patras is Greece’s third largest city and is the regional capital of western Greece. It has a large and busy port. We had considered sailing from Italy to here, but opted for Igoumenitsa instead to get some exploring in.
Burial chambers of Βούντενης/Voundeni
Our main focus was to see a couple of the sites of interest in Patras, on passing through. First port of call was Σκιοέσσα/Skioessa, previously known as Voundeni, the location of a prehistoric Mycenaean settlement and burial ground. The settlement covered an area of 180 acres and is 220m above the sea, so we were looking down from this burial site towards the city of Patras and over towards northwest Greece. Our photos here are from the burial site, but the rounded hill between the burial site and the sea, called Bortzi, is where the people lived. We were the only people at the site aside from staff!
The Mycenaean settlement in this area is thought to have lasted around 450 years (1500 to 1050 BCE). It’s in a prime spot for spotting any impending attack, due to the views from here out to sea. It also has the advantage of proximity to the mountains behind for escape and counter attack.
For more detail on the timeline of Greek history, you can check out Saul’s post on the subject:
Saul’s intro to the history of Greece – Krystal Ship Adventures
The burial ground covers around 18 acres and contains 78 chamber tombs, although it is thought that there may well be more tombs as yet undiscovered. As you walk around this smooth rounded hill, you see entrances in towards the centre of the hill. It is possible to enter several of these tombs. The size of the tombs, their depth and their height, varies substantially. It is presumed that this indicated the status of the families interred. The hill itself consists of a soft rock called kimilia, which made it comparatively easy for tombs to be carved into the hillside.
The first archeological excavations began here in 1924. Bodies were discovered laid out inside the tombs, and pits were also found which contained the bones of earlier burials. Also inside were grave offerings: pots, tools, jewelry, weapons and so on. These items have been traced to such far away locations as Crete, Italy, Syro-Palestine and Anatolia (modern day Turkey), which shows the wide trading and cultural connections of the Mycenaeans, over 3,000 years ago. All these items are now held at the Archaeological Museum of Patras.
The chamber tombs vary in size and design but, for the most part, are made up of the dromos (the ramp into the tomb); the façade; the doorway topped with a lintel; and the chamber, four-sided, horseshoe-shaped or circular. Most entrances to the tombs had been blocked for many centuries by a well-built dry masonry wall made from river stones. Some tombs had two levels of burials, that is, one set of remains covered over with a thin layer of earth, with another set of remains on top.
Tomb 5 has the remains of those buried inside still laid out for visitors to view. Incredibly, for an archeological site dating from over 3,500 years ago, we could walk into the tomb and right up to these remains. We could have touched them if we wanted. Nobody was there to guard against damage being done. It must be their experience that everybody shows respect and nobody has caused harm to the site.
Content Warning: This set of photos shows human remains laid out in Tomb 5, as discovered almost 100 years ago:
The Odeon of Patras
Our next stop in Patras was the Roman Odeon, located in the middle of the city. By this point, the rain was starting to pour so we didn’t get to spend much time here!
It’s the strangest thing – this Roman ruin is hardly made a feature of. It’s just a site in the middle of a busy commercial and residential area, just one block of many in a busy street. And yet, there it is with its stunning brickwork, beautiful mosaics, and a large collections of fallen columns and statues. Quite surreal.
Saul gives more details in his history post but, in brief, after Greece fell to Rome at the Battle of Actium in 32 BCE, Patras became an important city for the Roman occupation. Augustus refounded the city as a Roman colony and restored the ancient name of Aroe. The Odeon was built almost two hundred years later, around 160 CE, just before the larger Odeon of Athens. Nearby were sited a stadium and the temples of Aphrodite, Nemesis and Dionyson.
The Odeon of Patras was only discovered by accident when excavations were taking place for works at the nearby port! A reconstruction was ordered and the Odeon regained its original form in the early 1960s. Performances are held here now with a seating capacity of 2,500 people.
After leaving Patras, we searched unsuccessfully for a campsite for the night. Even ones that said online that they were open were closed when we turned up. So, we parked up for the night at a spot as recommended on the Park4Night app, near a beach. However, we reconsidered this at around midnight when the storm hit the Peloponnese with far greater force than anything we had expected. We moved further inland to the forecourt of a garage in Elín, such was the ferocity of the storm, the pounding rain and the thunder and lightening. That was a stressful 10km drive; the window wipers, even at full pelt, could scarcely cope with the torrential rain, and the roads were beginning to flood. We pulled in beside the garage in Elín and settled down for the night, but a good night’s sleep was not had by anyone!
The garage folk were very kind and understanding the following morning when we emerged (stepping over huge puddles of water). Everyone was relieved that the worst of the storm had passed.
It goes to show that, even when you’re tracking the weather forecasts and are making your travel plans accordingly, sometimes things go wrong and you have to adapt and make quick decisions – and hope for the best.