Gardiki

It is located on a steep foothill at the west of Mount Hellenitsa, between the villages of Tourkolekas and Chirades, at the Makryplagi crossing connecting Messenia with Arcadia - a passage which is significant since antiquity. The historian of the Palaiologan period, Kritovoulos of Imbros, described the spot in great detail: impregnable on every side and strongly fortified.

Gardiki is probably built on the ancient settlement of Amfias. If the present name has Slavic roots  it is likely that the region was inhabited from early on.

The castle was probably built after 1264, the year in which the Franks won the battle of Makryplagi, capturing the Byzantine officials (megas domestikos Alexius Philes, parakoimomenos Iannis Makrinos and Alexios Kaballarios or Kaballaritsis) and holding them captive - before their removal to Veligosti - for some time at Gardiki in a cave. It is also likely that the castle was constructed after 1284 and before 1297, when the French version of the Chronicle of Morea refers to it as Greek. It is not clear, however, if it was built by the Franks or the Greeks.

In 1374, the micer Francisco de Sant Severino (Francesco Sansverino), Bailli of the Morea for Princess Joanna I of Naples, besieged the castle. The castle-commander Sergiannis Gilopoulos, or Serrano Gilopol Crestian as he is called in the Aragonese version of the Chronicle, tried to raise the siege with the help of the despot Manuel Kantakouzenos. Eventually the Franks understood that they could not take such a strong castle, and abandoned the siege.

In 1423 it is said that the Turkish Turahan Bey got as far as Gardaki, while in 1460 it was besieged by Mehmed II himself. Here, since it was a fortified position, the people of Leontari had fled too. The besieged after a short time surrendered, but the Conqueror massacred the population and destroyed the castle. The only people not put to death were the Bochalaioi and Georgios Palaiologos. The place where the prisoners were taken and slaughtered is known as Kokkala (Bones). Indeed, an account of these events has survived in folk tradition: it says that the captives were placed in a threshing floor, and ‘threshed’ by horses – the river ran red with their blood "for an hour’s travel".

After these events Gardiki is not mentioned again in the sources. But it will be heard of once more when the son of Kolokotronis, Ioannis (also known as Gennaios, which means brave), took shelter there.

Χρονολόγηση: Frankish /late Byzantine periods (13th-15th centuries), Ottoman/Venetian periods (15th-19th centuries)

The rocky and rough terrain and the choking vegetation make it difficult to describe.  Entry to the castle is located on the west side of the foothill. Inside the castle one comes across church remains, traces of walls, cisterns, remnants of houses and towers.

The castle has been declared an archaeological site: YA 26061/1530 /02.28.1959 - Government Gazette 94/B/12.3.1959 and modified: YA 38200/2234/04.26.1960 - Government Gazette 203/B/13.5.1960. Protected by Law N. 3028/2002.

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A.D. Petropoulos (1955-1957), Λαογραφική αποστολή εις Χειράδες και Βελιγοστήν Αρκαδίας, Επετηρίς του Λαογραφικού Αρχείου 9-10, 412-415, especially 413.

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N. Skagkos (2006), Η εκστρατεία των Τούρκων στη νότια Πελοπόννησο το 1460, Πρακτικά Β' Τοπικού Συνεδρίου Λακωνικών Σπουδών (Ξηροκάμπι Λακωνίας, 28 Οκτωβρίου - 1 Νοεμβρίου 2004), Athens, 5-60, especially 38-41 (reprint).

T.I. Sphikopoulos (1968), Τα μεσαιωνικά κάστρα του Μορηά, Athens, 317-318.

A. Bon (1969), La Morée Franque. Recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d 'Achaie (1205-1430), Paris, vol. 1, 421-425, and vol. 2, pl 105.2a-b.