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Mani is the southernmost part of the Peloponnesus, a great
rocky trident of land stretching into the Sea of Crete. Here lies the
inhospitable region known as the "deep mani". |
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Nominally part of the prefecture of Laconia, it is
really another country, with its own customs, architecture and code
of honor. |
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In such fortified
towns, their characteristic, Maniot tower - dwellings
silhouetted against the clear
Peloponnesian
sky , it is
easy to see why the Maniates are
considered the true heirs
of the bellicose ancient Spartans,
known
as the Lacedaemonians. |
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This barren, rock - strewn and depopulated
region is home to men whose pursuits, throughout history, were neither agricultural nor peaceful.
The maniates often have their
own law. The women of Mani are as bold as the men. In life and in
death. In the wild fastness of Mani the people have clung to such
a faith in customs, traditions and the family as to traced the
limits of courage.
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Throughout
the following centuries of treacherous and violent "foreign intervention", it would be the thorny,
independent Maniates, fortified in their characteristic, two - and three - stony tower - dwellings far to the
south, who would symbolize the Peloponnesian resistance.
Though the Ottomans and Venetians took the peninsula in
turn; first one then the other seizing control, the Maniates never accepted defeat.
Just prior to
the outbreak of the Greek war of independence, the
Peloponnese was in Turkish hands, administered from
Tripolis: the Mani, however, had
been a sovereign state within a state for six years,
governed by the indomitable Petrobey Mauromichalis. |

Today by
"Maniates" we mean brave man, stalwarts, heroes.
The
towers. There are about 800 towers, isolated
or grouped in villages, the oldest go back to the 15th c, their height
increased with the power of the family that built them. They were
constructed of irregularly shaped blocks of stone, about
15m-25m/50ft-80ft high and square in shape, they comprised three or four
rooms. one above the other, linked by ladders and trap doors. Windows
were small and few in number and the top floor was crenellated so that
tower looked like a castle keep. The greatest concentration of towers is
to be found in Kita
and Vathia in the south.
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Mani's history is a loose thread, interweaving itself
with the multicolored strands from Sparta, Rome and Byzantium, the Franks,
Venetians and Turks, but always creating a unique design of its own on the
fringe of the main Greek pattern. It is a land of caves, churches and
strange towers, of fortified villages on bare mountainsides, of Byzantine
art and architecture of an extraordinary richness and importance, of
feuds, fasting and lamentation.

Until the
present century it was almost a living fossil of the
Middle Ages. It was a region of institutionalized civil
war and chronic internal disorder, yet its ironic glory
was to start the Revolution of 1821 which created the
nation-state in which Mani itself became an incongruity.

At the southernmost tip of the peninsula is Cape Tenaron (Mattapan).
In ancient times this was thought to be one of the
entrances to the underworld, where Heracles descended in
quest of the dog (Kerberos). Today the towers are
mostly deserted. Byzantine churches of great beauty, often
magnificently frescoed, are collapsing through neglect...

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NETWORK OF MANI
MUSEUMS-AREOPOLIS - PIKOULAKIS TOWER
MUSEUM
This Museum is located south
of the 17th March Square and the Church of the Taxiarchon (Archangels).
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It is housed in the tower that was previously owned by
the Pikoulakis
family one of the most prominent families in Mani before the War of
Independence. The Pikoulakis family distinguished itself in the struggle
against the Turks. |
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This complex is a typical example of the fortified
residences found in the area and consists of a defensive tower and
residential quarters arranged round a small central courtyard. It has
been designated a historic, listed building.
Areopolis Museum is part of
the "Network of Mani Museums", an extensive museum project being set up
by the Ministry of Culture and founded jointly with the European Union.
The project aims to
present Maniot culture of the Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods
through visible remnants of the local people's creativity, while also
drawing attention to the numerous monuments scattered all over the
peninsular. |
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You can view our portfolio of photos at
http://www.panoramio.com/user/45649/tags/Mani
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