Leontari

The castle is located at the north-west of the village, on a hill of 590 m. The location was strategic as it oversees a region extending from the bed of the river Karniona (Xerila) up to the Lykaio and Nomia mountains, the slopes of Taygetos, Mount Tsembero, the forests of Skiritida, Mainalo and Gortynian mountains. Also, it commanded an important position as it was a key point of the land road leading to the capital of the Despotate of Morea, Mystra.

The importance of the position is shown by the fact that during the Ottoman period, until its transfer to Tripolitsa, this was the seat of the Pashalik of the Peloponnese.

Leontari Castle, which was built at the site of the ancient Leuctra, owes its name probably to some scion of the Byzantine family with the surname Leontarios/Leontaris, which must have moved into the area during the 11th century from Chalkidiki. According to tradition, Leontari owes its name to its appearance (to someone looking at it from neighbouring Paloukorachi) resembling a "seated lion".The place appears in the historical written sources in the late 14th century, in direct association with Veligosti. However the nature of the relationship between them is not yet clear, i.e. whether it took over from Veligosti or is to be identified with the same during the Frankish period.

Leontari flourished from 1430 onwards. as then Thomas Palaiologos, brother of the last emperor Constantine XI, took the title of Despot of the Morea and was installed here.Meanwhile, in the late 14th and 15th centuries, down to 1460, when it was finally conquered by Mehmed II, Leontari often was attacked or occupied by the Turks (1395, 1397, 1423, 1453-1454, 1459). It is worth noting that in 1460 Leontari was deserted, and its inhabitants were transferred to Gardiki. Thus the Turks occupied it without even a fight.

In 1533 Leontari, although under Turkish occupation, was given to the Greek partner of the imperial forces of Charles V, Theodore Agiapostolitis. The castle would be his, if with the help of God he drove out the Turks. During the Ottoman period, the seat of the Pasha of the Peloponnese was established at Leontari. In the 17th century the Turkish traveller Çelebi visited Leontari: he remarks that it consists of three precincts and that the Greeks live in the innermost. His lists include the following buildings: a mosque of Bayezid Veli, a seminary, a tekke, a school, an inn, eight shops, a small hamam, and two hundred wells. The English traveller Leake visited the area in the 19th century: he says it was inhabited mainly by Turks (250 Turkish houses compared with 40 Greek). During the Revolution it probably was a base of the Greek Resistance Fighters, while in the years following it was abandoned and suffered many disasters, mainly due to the robbing of stone building material for the reconstruction of the settlement, but also because of afforestation after the Civil War.

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

The ground-plan of the castle is triangular and follows the natural shape of the hill.

The castle had three gates. At the south edge of the south-west side was the main entrance of the castle, and near the north end was another gate. The third one was located near the west end of the north side.

The fortification of the castle includes an outer defensive enclosure and an inner courtyard surrounding the plateau at the peak. The outer enclosure has on the north and south-west sides a wall that is strengthened here and there by rectangular towers. The east side, where the hill is steeper, is different: lesser walls filled in the gaps in the natural rock. The citadel is surrounded by wall of an irregular pentagon shape. Its north-west corner is reinforced by rectangular towers. Its entrance was via a tower-like protrusion at the south-west side of the enclosure.

The medieval settlement developed both inside the walls and outside, as is indicated too by the churches of Ag. Athanasius and of the Apostles. Within the walls are preserved the ruins of the churches of the Archangels, of Agia Kyriaki, Ag. Vasileios and another, now anonymous. The other buildings of the settlement (houses, cisterns, and yet other buildings) have now turned into stone piles. Of the structures on the citadel, which could be linked with the Despot Thomas Palaiologos, there are preserved in good condition a cistern and the church of the Prophet Elias,  which is more recent.

From the masonry of the various structures that make up Leontari Castle, two or more building phases can be recognized, the oldest of which may belong to the Palaiologan years. In the late 15th century, the castle underwent alterations by the Ottomans.

N. 3028/2002.

In 2007 the castle was declared fire-damaged; under the umbrella of the restoration programme for such monuments the 25th EBA carried out the work titled "Enhancement of the fire-damaged Castle at Leontari".

D. Athanasoulis (2012), 25η Εφορεία Βυζαντινών Αρχαιοτήτων, Από το Ανασκαφικό έργο των Εφορειών Αρχαιοτήτων, Athens, 140-141.

P. Velissariou (1982), Οικιστικά του βυζαντινού Λεονταρίου Αρκαδίας, JӦB 32/4, 625-637 (= XVI Internationaler Byzantinistenkongress, Wien, 4-9 October 1981, Akten II.4, vol. 4.2, Vienna 1982).

A. Bon (1969), La Morée Franque. Recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d'Achaie (1205-1430), Paris, Vol. 1, 98, 271-72, 285, 290, 380, 425, 520-521, 646, and vol. 2 pl. 163.2.

P.I. Kostakis (1980-1981), Ο  Elviyâ Çelebi στην Πελοπόννησο, Πελοποννησιακά XIV 238-306, especially. 238.

A. Louvi-Kizi (2007), Ο ναός των Αγίων Αποστόλων στο Λεοντάρι Αρκαδίας», ΔΧΑΕ 28, 99-114.

A Moustoxidis (1843), Ἅλωσις, ὑπεράσπισις καὶ ἐγκατάλειψις τῆς Κορώνης ὑπὸ τῶν δυνάμεων τοῦ Αὐτοκράτορος Καρόλου Ε΄. Συνέργεια εἰς τὴν ἅλωσιν καὶ ὑπεράσπισιν αὐτῆς Θεοδώρου τοῦ Ἁγιαποστολίτου, Ελληνομνήμων 1, 142-159.

P. Sarantakou (2006), Αρκαδία. Οι ακροπόλεις, τα κάστρα και οι πύργοι της. Σιωπηλά ερείπια μιας δοξασμένης γη, Athens, 125-129.

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 41-43 (reprint).

T.I. Sphikopoulos (1968), Τα μεσαιωνικά κάστρα του Μορηά, Athens, 243.