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Avia goes well back into ancient history but even before the ancient times it was known in Myth and legend.According to legend Avia is built upon Iri the ruined homeric city from the Iliad. Agamemnon offered Iri as one of the seven cities to Achilles as a marital gift. The name Avia comes from the nursemaid of Heracles, two sons who settled here after being expelled by the Acheans, later she built a notable temple to Heracles.
In 181 BC Avia was part of the Achean league.
According to Pausanias who traveled in this area in 2AD there were three ancient cities, Avia, Gerenia and Alagonia. Nestor the great king was educated and lived in the town of Gerenia after the downfall of Pylos. There is however no mention of this town by Homer but another by the name of Enope.The romans placed Gerenia on the eastern side of the Messinian gulf.
Gerenia is placed by the very much later French mission at Zarnata, later the village of Stavropigio where the castle of Medieval origin was built upon ancient remains. However Pausanias describes Gerenia as a coastal town, close to a mountain named Calathium. There was according to Pausanias a cavern and a sanctuary to a water nypmh by the name of Claea, the modern fishing port of Kitries best fits this description and Col WM Leake traveling in the area in the early 1800s claimed to have seen this cavern at Kitries. It was not unusual however in those times to place the main part of the town away from the coast in order to protect the town from pirates and coastal raiders.
Gerenia has also been placed by some academics at the present day Kambos, the administrative centre of the municipality of Avia.
There is also some claim to Kendro, the collection of villages also known as Gaitses, higher up in Avia to be Alagonia, a free Lakonian city. According to Pausanias, sanctuaries of Artemis and Dionsys were to be found here.
There are the remains of Mycean tombs just outside of Kambos underneath the Koumoundros tower.
The tomb was the burial place of Machaon son of Asclepius, asclepius had a sanctuary dedicated to him in the village of Paliochora, now under the church in the village c1775. Machaon with his brother led an army from Messinia in the Trojan war. Both brothers were also renowned surgeons. According to the Iliad, Machaon was wounded by Paris and finally killed in the tenth year of the war by Eurypylus.
Byzantine Avia, 500 - 1453
The French mission to the area in the late 19th century declared that the the local population had no direct link to the peoples of the Hellenes but were related to the slavic tribes who had invaded the area from the 6th and 7 th centuries. At the end of the 7th century the Byzantine empire had lost control of the exo Mani to the Melingi tribe of slav invaders. When the the Byzantines retook the area in the 9th century christianity was established. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the Empire made its seat of government in Mystras, after further Turkish incursions Mystras also fell and the remains of the nobilty and their followers sought safety in the mountains of Taygetos, emerging eventually onto the coastal area of Avia and Kardamyli.
The Franks, mid -late middle ages
In 1204 Constantinople was sacked and looted by the christians on crusade heading for Jerusalem. A Frankish noble by the name of Geoffory De Villehardouin who later became The prince of Achea seized his opportunity and claimed the Peloponnese by force. The Byzantines in retaliation sent a large army backed by the Melingi tribe into a pitched battle with the Frankish armies. The byzantine army was utterly defeated by the more modern Frankish army and Geoffory was left to rule the area. In 1259 William, Geoffory's son was over stretching his luck and was captured at the battle of Pelagonia and ceded large parts of the territory to gain his release. In 1261 the city of Constantinople was recovered and the Byzantine empire ruled once more.
The castle of Zarnata bears the remains of ancient, Byzantine and Frankish remains.
Venetian and Turkish rule
After the fall of Constantinoplein 1453, the Turkish forces under Mehmet invaded the peloponnese and taking Zanarta castle for the first time (1460).The Republic of Venice however also had their eyes on the area and they fostered revolt through the Kladas clan a maniat Kapetano family. This war lasted from 1463 to 1478. Eventually the Republic of Venice and the leader of the Kladas clan fell out amongst themselves. It was reputed that a centre of Kapetani activity was Doloi, a small village 6 km up the mountain from kitries sand only 2 km from the castle of Zarnata.
In 1670 the Turk's retook the exo Mani and Zanarta castle.They strengthened the castle, building houses, mosques, offices and bath houses.
Such was the topsy turvy nature of life here that in 1685 the Venetians recaptured the castle and for the next 30 years the castle served as the headquarters of an administrative district.
In 1715 the Maniates aggrieved at the loss of their privileges under the Venetians ensured the Turkish forces that Zarnata castle would fall if required. Eventually the Venetian forces left without a fight. Never to return. The turk's now ruled the Mani but only in name.
Having tried to subdue the Maniates and make them pay taxes and failed repeatedly. The Ottomans decided to rule by proxy through a Bey or local prince.
The first Bey was Zanetos Koutifaris of Zanarta who reigned from 1776 until 1779. The job may have had many perks but failure had a high price and he was beheaded on board a Turkish ship.
The fourth Bey was also from the local area, Panayiotis Koumoundros also of Zarnata. The present tower of the castle dates back to his time there. (1798-1803) He also incurred the wrath of his masters and was replaced by a member of the Grigorakis clan. The Ottoman force of Turko-Albanians under the local commander Seremet-bey besieged Koumoundros and a small band of his followers in Zarnata castle, also there wanted and on the run from the turk's was Theodhoros Kolokontrisis . Even more bizarrely outside the castle walls and helping the Turkish forces was another local kapetano Mourtzinos of Kardamyli. Mourtzinos and Kolokotronsis were both friends and Mourtzinos was theoretically an enemy of the Turk's but presumably times being what they were one had to take chances with each ever side as it suited. Kolokotronsis got word out to his friend in regard to his predicament, he was now badly wounded Mourtzinos organised his escape and koumoundros was left defending the castle. Eventually captured Koumoundros was shipped off to Constantinople presumably to suffer the same fate as the first Bey of the Mani.
Koumoundros tower
revolution in Avia
On the 17th of March 1821 the flag of revolution was raised in the square of Tsimova (Now Aeropoli) by Petros Mavromichalis the Bey at the time who had one of his castles in the port of Kitries.
The castle complex of Petrobey Mavromichalis, sadly nothing remains.
Petrobey had for many years been in contact with the Philiki Etairia, a secret society preaching revoloutionry priciples throughout schools in Greece.There were reputedly secret schools in both Doloi and Zarnata. He had also been working to promote harmony within the various leading clans of the the mani.
The raising of the revoloutionary standard sent flames through the Mani and within days Kalamata castle was captured.
The war of Independence see-sawed up and down and the Turk's tiring of their troublesome subjects offered Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt the opportunity to take the Peoloponnese on their behalf. In 1825 he invaded the Mani destroying the castle complex at Kitries. The war raged on and later coming back from the north Pasha was held at Vergha by a force under Mavromichalis and a second invasion being repulsed by Maniat women at Diros.
The war finally ended when the combined fleets of Russia, France, England and Greece sank the Ottoman fleet in Napflino harbour.
In 1870 the final Maniate feud in the village of Kita was resolved by Alexander Koumoudros sending in the army.
