Castles of Europe - Acro

The name of the castle and its location

The castle Acro Corinth in Greece
AcroCorinth is 600m above sea level From AcroCorinth you can see the Aegean and Ionian Sea. It took 400 years to build AcroCorinth!! AcroCorinth has 6 towers and 3 outer walls The walls are 30m high, 2m thick!! The walls are 2km long. Inside the walls of the fortress there were: a church, a mosque, minaret's, a bakers, food, stores, cisterns, a black smith, a temple, barracks, housing and a hospital. AcroCorinth was said, 'to be the gates of the Peleponnese.' The three religions are: Christian, Muslim and Ancient Greek.

Short history of the structure

The people of AcroCorinth introduced cloth, pottery, armor and impure worship. The people of AcroCorinth weren't aggressive and they didn't like to go to war. Also they enjoyed a life of luxury Corinth became a independent of Rome. Corinth was rebuilt by Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. Corinth was the most important of interchange between Romans, Greeks, Jews, Syrians and Egyptians. There are two Gulfs next to Corinth, they are: The Corinthian Gulf and the Saronic Gulf. Temples in Corinth were dedicated to the cult of the Emperor, to various Greek deities, and to the Egyptian gods.

AcroCorinth was under siege for 5 years! Why was it able to hold out for so long? Because the Cistern was very big and deep so there was a lot of water, especially if it had been raining. There were lots of food stores with lots of food and although AcroCorinth is big there were not a lot of mouths to feed. Also as AcroCorinth is built on top of a sheer cliff, the walls are built specifically so there is more space to shoot arrows.

What is there in the castle now?

Recently, a year 7 class from St. Catherine's British Embassy School visited the ancient site of Acrocorinth. This amazing site is located near the mountain Acro-Corinthus in Greece, just two kilometers away from the Corinth canal. This magnificent fortress, 600 meters above sea level, is one of the hardest castles to attack due to its marvelous positioning. Situated on the top of a hill, Acrocorinth has three steep curtain walls, surrounding it. There is evidence of many different people living there from different countries and with different religions. There is a temple to Aphrodite which indicates that the Ancient Greeks had dwelt there. There is a church, indicating that Christians had passed by there. There is a mosque, which goes to show that Muslims had settled there at one time. Also, the sizes of the rocks in the towering walls prove the existence of different peoples. To be exact, five different groups of people had settled there: the Ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, The Ottoman Turks and, very briefly, the Crusaders.

Danae Kouzof

Photoghraphs of the castle

Acro Corinth

Acro Corinth
Walls

Acro Corinth
Church

Acro Corinth
Gate

Artistic works

Caroline
Vokas

Ben
Spells

Michael
Trigatzis

Niki
Lekkas

Legend connected with the castle

During siege, the people in Acrocorinth were safe. The defense of the castle was amazing. As you already know, Acrocorinth was on a hill, and as the attackers climbed, the archers from inside, shot them down. There were loads of water supplies so they would never run out of water. They also had the Pyrenean spring, which is said to have sprung out of the rock after Pegasus, the winged horse, struck it with his horn. They had many under ground storing places where they kept food. They also had animals inside the walls which they fattened and slaughtered.

There must have been many different buildings there centuries and centuries ago such as blacksmiths and bakers, barracks and churches, mosques and minarets, towers and cisterns, hospitals and housing, but very few of them have survived.

Danae Kouzof

Poem about the castle

Poem by Benjamin Spells

Acrocorinth
Acrocorinth on a hill,
Crowning the glory of the Peleponese.
Roaming fields surround the mountain,
Overlooking the sea.
Castle then, ruins now.
Only time can tell.
Round the mountain were soils rich
In the valley as well.
No-one lives there now only
Thousands of years ago.
How long will it last? Only time can tell

Look at the original -->poem
Poem by Catherine Karellis

Acrocorinth under Siege
There are people outside our castle walls
Shooting us with their arrows
Hoping we will be killed
So they can claim this fortress.

There is not much hope
Our knights have perished
And these barbarians
Are burning everything in sight.

We hope, we pray they will leave soon
But they are still there
Unrelenting, for three years
They have stayed there.

They do not realize we have lives
We have a family and a religion
We do not wish to lose all this
To barbaric and sinful people.

The Lord will not be happy with them
He will try and help us
But our prayers are yet to be answered
I hope they will be soon.

We will probably all die
Or carried of as slaves
Maybe we are not thinking the right way
Maybe we will be set free.

Look at the original -->poem
Poem by Danae Kouzof

Acrocorinth
Through the walls of Acrocorinth,
Lies a city safe and sound,
And through the gruesome countless battles,
By heavy stone-walls they are bound.

But now the eerie city lies,
Forever, through dusk and dawn,
Where many innocent people died,
Where many hearts were torn.

All through siege and during combat,
The fortress stayed in tact,
The people were unblemished,
And that's a truthful fact.

Until the gravest day came forth,
The clock beat man again,
The castle was destroyed by time,
And demolished all the pain.

Look at the original -->poem
Poem by Johanna Ryden

ACROCORINTH
On a steep hill it lies
Which few people managed to climb
Overlooking plains and seas and both sides
Where people lived for a long time

It had a church, bakery and many more things
Including a bakery and keep
Here people wanted to become kings
It also had a cistern with water they'd keep

Many people tried to besiege it
Some managed some did not
Some were not close one bit
Some took the lot

People there lived a happy life
With water and food to drink and eat
With maybe even having children and wife
Even if they had people to defeat

Look at the original -->poem

Students - active in preparing this project

Year 7 (12 years old) students who participated in the project were

Dimitris Kalliafas
Johanna Ryden
Michael Trigatzis
Ellen Chamberlain
Catherine Karellis
Danae Kouzof
Niki Lakeman
Caroline Vokas
Benjamin Spells

INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL

OFFICIAL NAME OF SCHOOL
St Catherine's British Embassy School
TYPE OF SCHOOL
Secondary school
ADDRESS
Sophocles Venizelou 73
POSTAL CODE
GR 141 23
TOWN
Lykovrissi, Athens
COUNTRY
Greece
URL
www.stcatherines.gr
E-MAIL OF SCHOOL
TEACHER CONTACT DETAILS
Sheila Trudgett

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