Qualla: Kalamata Castle https://qualla.com/kalamata-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:34:06 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/q/x/d/kalamata-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Kalamata Castle https://qualla.com/kalamata-castle Kalamata Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/kalamata-castle/ Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. AlMare assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. There is a prisoner in the donjon of Kalamata Castle. He studies the wall. Outside his cell window, the drop to the courtyard is considerable, but a prisoner with patience and a rope can measure it. In 1293 or 1295 — medieval chronicles are imprecise — a captive from the local Slavic community did exactly that. He was released. He built a ladder of precisely the right height. That night, he and fifty companions climbed into the tower. The next morning, six hundred more arrived. The Frankish garrison was driven out.

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. AlMare assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/q/x/d/kalamata-castle-wp/sqxd-kalamata-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Kalamata Castle: From Acropolis to Monastery to Castle https://qualla.com/kalamata-castle/ Photo credit Drakopoulosdim, CC BY-SA 4.0. The hilltop above Kalamata has been occupied for a very long time. The ancient city of Pharae stood here — mentioned by Homer, its acropolis now buried under medieval stonework. The Byzantine Empire built the first castle on that acropolis, but by the time Frankish Crusaders arri...

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Image: Drakopoulosdim | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/q/x/d/kalamata-castle-wp/sqxd-kalamata-castle-from-acropolis-to-monastery-to-castle.mp3 0:06 2 full Kalamata Castle: Conquest by Rope Ladder https://qualla.com/kalamata-castle/ Photo credit Drakopoulosdim, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Slavic raid of the 1290s stands out in the castle's long history as one of its odder episodes. After the rope-ladder capture, the occupiers held the castle for a brief period before the Franks retook it with help from a local Greek chieftain. The response was practical: the F...

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Image: Drakopoulosdim | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/q/x/d/kalamata-castle-wp/sqxd-kalamata-castle-conquest-by-rope-ladder.mp3 0:06 3 full Kalamata Castle: Blown Apart by Its Captors https://qualla.com/kalamata-castle/ Photo credit Jm, CC BY-SA 4.0. The castle's decisive end came in 1685. Morosini returned during the Morean War; the Venetians defeated an Ottoman army at the foot of the hill on 14 September. The retreating Ottomans set fire to their ammunition stores — the explosions did tremendous damage to the walls that ha...

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Image: Jm | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/q/x/d/kalamata-castle-wp/sqxd-kalamata-castle-blown-apart-by-its-captors.mp3 0:06 4 full Kalamata Castle: What Remains https://qualla.com/kalamata-castle/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. The historian Kevin Andrews wrote that the castle's modest size and its "eminent, but not pre-eminent position" on the hillside meant it was never expanded into a proper artillery fortress. What survives reflects that verdict: a ruined donjon at the northernmost corner, a small s...

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Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/q/x/d/kalamata-castle-wp/sqxd-kalamata-castle-what-remains.mp3 0:06 5 full