Qualla: Larisa (Argos)

Larisa (Argos): Introduction

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Vincenzo Coronelli, Public domain. Coin-minters, conquerors, and nuns have all occupied the high hill above Argos, and the ruins up top hold the evidence of every last one of them. Larisa — the ancient and medieval acropolis that the geographer Strabo said was named for a group of Pelasgians, the pre-Greek inhabitants of the region — juts from the western edge of Argos on a steep rocky cone visible for miles across the Argive plain. The Byzantines built a castle there in the 12th century. Crusaders seized it in 1212. Venetians purchased it in 1388. Ottomans conquered it in 1463. Then, in 1821, a Greek revolutionary climbed it and took it back. The site was fortified and continuously occupied for nineteen centuries. That record of endurance is not a boast — it is geography made visible in stone.

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Image: Vincenzo Coronelli | Public domain

Larisa (Argos): Born Before the City Below It

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit KLS, Public domain. Larisa predates the city of Argos itself. In Mycenaean times, the main settlement and temples stood on the Aspis hill to the north, with its cemetery in the saddle between the two hills — the col of Deiras, which later became the location of the Deiras Gate. The eastern slopes of...

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Image: KLS | Public domain

Larisa (Argos): A Castle Bought and Sold

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit O.Mustafin, CC0. The Byzantine period gave Larisa its most durable architectural legacy: the castle that still stands in ruin at the summit. The Byzantines founded it in the 12th century, but control of it rarely stayed in one set of hands for long. In 1212, the Crusader Geoffrey of Villehardouin...

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Image: O.Mustafin | CC0

Larisa (Argos): Venetians, Ottomans, and a Brief Mint

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit George E. Koronaios, CC0. After the sacking, Argos and Larisa remained under Venetian control until 1463, when the outbreak of the First Ottoman–Venetian War brought the Ottomans back — this time permanently, for nearly four centuries. Then came 1821. Demetrios Ypsilantis, one of the key figures of the Gr...

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Image: George E. Koronaios | CC0

Larisa (Argos): What the Hill Looks Like Now

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alun Salt, CC BY-SA 2.0. From the plain, Larisa reads as a long, dark ridge above Argos, its summit punctuated by the surviving walls and towers of the Byzantine-Venetian castle. The approach up the western edge of Argos passes through the town and then climbs steeply. Midway up the slope sits the Panagi...

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Image: Alun Salt | CC BY-SA 2.0