MONEMVASIÁ , standing impregnable on a great island-like irruption of rock, was the medieval seaport and commercial centre of the Byzantine Peloponnese, the secular counterpart of Mystra. Nowadays the lower town is a curious mixture of atmospheric heritage combined with tacky souvenir shops and gawping tourists.

 

The town's name, an elision of Moni Emvasis , "single entrance", is a reference to its approach from the mainland, across a kilometre of causeway and a small bridge built in the twentieth century to replace a sequence of wooden bridges. Such a defensible and strategic position gave it control of the sea lanes from Italy and the west, to Constantinople and the Levant. Fortified on all approaches, it was invariably the last outpost of the Peloponnese to fall to invaders, and was only ever taken through siege.