Aspis & Larisa Cithadels
 

Agios Ioannis Church
 

Agios Petros Church
 

The Ancient Theatre
 

Kefalari
 

The Barracks of Kapodistrias
 

Aspis Cithadel

For more photos 
please visit 
Argos's 
Photo Galerry

Argos was the most powerful city in the Peloponnese in the 7th century B.C.  whwn it was ruled by its skillful tyrant, Pheidon, often credited with inventing coinage in Greece. The modern Argos is biult precisely on top of the ancient city, there is to see the 4th century theatre, an excelent museum, and out of the Argos twin citadels, the Aspis and the Larissa, are very impresive

A LOOK AT THE PAST:

The site of Argos was ocupied in pre-Greek times, and during the Mycenaean period it becane the seat of the Danaid dynasty. After the coming of the Dorians, in the 1st millennium B.C., it grew into a place of a considerable importance altrough during the 7th and 6th century it exhausted itself in strife with Sparta. In the 5th century the Argos school of sculptors produced the great Polykleistos who perfected the canon of Doric sculpture. In 146 B.C. the city became Roman. In A.D. 267 and 306 it was plundered by the Goths. 
During the Middle Age and the early modern period it belonged to the Venetians (1388-1463, 1686-1715) and Turks (1463-1686, 1715-1826). national assemblies were held in the ancient theatre in 1821 and 1829. 

WHAT TO SEE & DO:

The Theather of Argos
4th century theather was just larger, but probably the largest in classical Greece. 20.000 spectators could sit here, in 89 tiers of seats, many of which were carved from the hillside itself.

The Museum of Argos 
Has a handful of superlative pieces including the fragment of a 7th century B.C. clay krater showing a determined Ulysses blinding the one-eyed Cyclops Polyphemus, from whose blood already drips. You could see a handsome lyre made from tartoise shell, bronze helmet, a suit of body armor, a handsome pitcher in the shape of a bird with its head thrown back in song and the tiny,stout Neolithic clay figure of a woman or goddes is one of the oldest known sculptural representation of the human body found in Europe.

The Larisa and the Aspis
The Larisa citadel -905 foot high- was well fortified by the 6th century B.C.. There is an inner and outer system of walls here, with several towers and the ruins of a church. the view's the thing here, and you get a view of the plain Argos, the Gulf of Nafplion and the lower citadel, the Aspis (328 foot high). The Greek word "Aspis" means "shields" which is that Argives thought this hill looked like. This was the city's first acropolis, abandoned when the higher Larisa was fortified.

ALTERNATIVE DESTINATION:

The Argive Heraion
Is about 13 km outside Argos and is the smaller ancient site in yeh Peloponnese but the earliest settlement here probably dates from the Neolithic era, but the remains are from an important sanctuary to Zeus's long-suffering wife Hera; it was built-between the 7th and 4th centuries B.C. although the Romans constructed the inevitable bath here in later years. according to legend, Agamemnon was officialy named leader of the Greek expedition against Troy at the argive Heraion.

Lerna
4th millenium B.C. palace known as the House of the Tiles so special. People lived at Lerna from the Neolithic period through the Mycenaean, and pottery from as far away as Troy has been found here. According to legend, Hercules killed the nine-headed Lernan Hydra in a nearby swamp. The swamp is now a fertile plain. 

GETTING THERE:

20 km. from Tolo, 137 km from Athena
Altitude: 15m; Population: 18.000
By Bus
There are five buses a day to Argos from the Stathmos Leoforia Peloponisou in Athens.
By Train
There are about five trains a day from Athens to Argos.
By Car
From Athens - Corinth - Nemea - Mycenae - Argos.