Thermisia Village

Thermisia is a small village in the Ermionida area of the Argolis peninsula, in the Peloponnese, about seven kilometres east of the coastal town of Ermioni, within whose municipal unit it lies. Its main draw for visitors is not the village itself but the ruined castle that stands on the ridge above it.

Thermisia Castle, sometimes called the Castle of Oria, is a Frankish-era fortress built on a steep, twin-peaked rock roughly 300 metres high, about two kilometres northwest of the village, overlooking the lagoon and the salt pans that once made the area valuable. It is first recorded in documents around 1347, and later passed to the Byzantine ruler Theodore Palaiologos, who handed it to Venice; in 1394 Venice traded Argos and Thermisia for Megara and the tower of Mylopotamos. After the Ottoman conquest of the Peloponnese in 1460 the fortress stayed in Venetian hands until it surrendered to the Ottomans in 1537, and its Venetian holders blew it up in 1715 rather than let it fall to a rival power. Local legend adds a darker footnote: a princess is said to have leapt from its cliffs rather than surrender the castle, giving it the alternate name of "Oria."

Today the climb up to the ruins rewards visitors with sweeping views over the Argolic Gulf, and the quiet village below makes an easy, low-key stop for anyone cruising this part of the Peloponnese — Thermisia is worth a visit if you're chartering a gulet in Greece.