The Castle of Patras is an old fortress of the city and now an important well-preserved monument and one of its landmarks.
It was built on the ruins of the ancient Acropolis in the second half of the 6th AD. century by Justinian and specifically after the catastrophic earthquake of 551 with materials of pre-Christian buildings for the defense of the area and the inhabitants.
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It is located on a low hill at the end of Panachaikos at a distance of about 800 meters from the shore of the Gulf of Patras. Its walls enclose an area of 22,725 sq.m. and consists of a triangular outer enclosure, reinforced with towers and bastions, which were originally protected by a deep moat and an inner enclosure that rises to the NE. corner and also surrounded by a moat.
In the centuries that followed and until World War II, it remained in uninterrupted use for the defense of the city, but also as an administrative and military center. In the Byzantine centuries, until the arrival of the Franks (1205) it was besieged by Slavs, Saracens, Bulgarians, Normans, etc. but without being able to conquer it. The Turks occupied it in 1458 and remained there almost throughout the period of Ottoman rule in Greece.
The castle passed into the hands of the Greeks only in 1828 after its surrender by the Turkish guard to the French general Maison during the French Campaign of Moria. In the years 1941-1944 it was under German Nazi occupation from which it was liberated together with the city of Patras on October 4, 1944. Since 1973 the Castle is under the supervision of the 6th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities.
Nowadays, in the detachable theater (640 seats) located in the inner courtyard, cultural events are hosted every summer.
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