Monemvasia

Monemvasia sits on a rocky islet off the eastern coast of Laconia in the Peloponnese, joined to the mainland by a narrow, roughly 400-metre causeway that gives the town its name — "single entrance" in Greek. Founded in the sixth century, it grew during the Byzantine era into one of the most important trading ports of the eastern Mediterranean, its wine exports so renowned across Europe that the Malvasia grape variety takes its name from the town itself. Control passed between Byzantine, Venetian, and Ottoman rule over the centuries, each leaving its mark on the fortress town's walls, churches, and stone mansions, and Monemvasia remains one of the oldest continuously inhabited fortified settlements in Europe.

The town divides into an upper citadel, largely abandoned after the Venetian period, and a lower town of narrow cobbled lanes squeezed between the rock face and the sea, where old merchant houses have been converted into guesthouses. A small sea gate, the portello, still opens directly from the walls onto the water, and the settlement's population — around 1,600 in the historic centre at the last census — swells considerably each summer. Approached from the sea, the stone town rising sheer from the cliff is one of the more striking sights on the Peloponnesian coast, and many gulet cruises in Greece call in here to anchor off the rock before going ashore on foot.