The Castle of Chora is still in very good condition. It seems that the strategic worth of the place had been observed since the Byzantine era. The first fortifications were built in the middle of the 13th century.
The Venetian conquerors made some additional works and repairs in the beginning of the 16th century to deal with the frequent pirate raids that tormented the people of Kythira. The importance however, of the Castle is rather limited, until the destruction of Paleohora and the transfer of the capital city to Chora, the Castle became the most important fortification on the island.
The castle facilities were improved as time went by and include food stores and water cisterns. The impressive cisterns, still intact today, were built systematically during the middle of the 16th century, while the cannons were constructed in 1660. Among the different buildings inside the Castle, the Palace of Provlepton is in very good condition. The Palace was the seat of the governor during the Venetian era and the house of the representative of the English Commissioner, during the English era. The Historical Archive of Kythira is housed there today featuring important historical archives. The ruined mansion located in the centre of the Castle is the mansion of the Stais family, one of the oldest families of the island.
Inside the Castle, there are four churches. The oldest one is the church of Pantokratoras, built in 1545, featuring impressive murals. The biggest, however church of the Castle is the church of Panagia Myrtidiotissa, built in 1580. The church was catholic in the beginning -The Madonna of the Latins -but it became an orthodox church in 1806.
The icon of Myrtidiotissa was kept in that church for almost two centuries - to protect the city from pirate raids. In 1842, the icon returned to the monastery of Myrtidion and a copy was displayed in the church of the Castle. The small church located next to the Panaghia Myrtidiotissa is the church of Panaghia Orfani, a temple of the Kallonas family, descendants of whom reached the seat of the metropolitan bishop of Kythira. Inside the Castle area one can find the church of Saint John the Baptist.
Starting from the 16th century, the people start to populate the area inside the castle, in order to protect themselves from the pirate raids. Soon the area became too small to accommodate the growing population and the settlement expanded to the east of the Castle - the Mesa Vourgo. Mesa Vourgo was named thus, due to the fact that a new wall was built on the boundaries of the new settlement. Some ruins can still be seen today. The settlement is full of old churches, some dating back to the 15th century, proving the fact that the area was already inhabited in that era. Today, Mesa Vourgo is under protection, since it retains many of its original Middle Ages characteristics. There are many events linked with the history of the Castle.
We should perhaps point out the heroic resistance of the French during the siege by the Russian/Turkish forces in August 1798. The siege ended with the surrender of the fort and the honorary withdrawal of the French guard. The Castle played a significant role during pea-sant revolt of 1800. The revolutionaries killed inside the palace of Provlepton and other places in the Castle -many of the island nobles whom they thought respon¬sible for the oppression during the era of feudalism.
Kythira Historical Archive
The Kythira Historical Archive is the second most important historical archive of the Heptanese after that of Corfu. It is housed in the Palace of Provlepton and includes an impressive number of documents and valuable archive material. Regrettably the explosion of the Castle's powder keq caused by lightning in 1701, destroyed a lot of old documents, so the archives still intact today, date from the middle of the 16th century. The Kythira Historical Archive is managed by the Kythira Studies Society, a foundation dedicated to scientific research and maintenance of works of art, literature and history of Kythira. The Historical Archive is also the source of many of the important publications by the Kythira Studies Society.
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