Nafplio Travel Guide

Palamidi Fortress crowns the steep ridge east of Nafplio, built by the Venetians in the early 18th century from mutually supporting bastions — a masterpiece of European military engineering. Reached by about 900 stone steps (or by car around the hill), the top offers a 360° view of Nafplio bay, the old town and the Peloponnese mountains. Pivotal in the Greek War of Independence, today it is Nafplio's grandest viewpoint and place of remembrance.

Bourtzi is a circular Venetian castle perched on a tiny islet in the harbour of Nafplio, its name Bourtzion meaning 'islet'. It defended the port during the 1822 Greek War of Independence, later serving as a place of execution and even a luxury hotel. A few minutes by small boat brings you to its walls, and at sunset the fortress mirrored in the water is Nafplio's most iconic postcard view.

Nafplio Old Town was Greece's first capital after independence, a harbour town ruled by Venice and Ottoman in turn, known for scattered red roofs, wrought-iron balconies and flagstone lanes. Around Syntagma (Constitution) Square sit the neoclassical parliament and cafés — the city's social heart; the seafront walk looks to the Bourtzi sea castle. Slow-paced and elegant, it is the Peloponnese's most stay-a-while stop.

Tiryns is a major citadel of the Mycenaean civilisation on the Argolid plain of the Peloponnese, a few kilometres from Nafplio, and since 1999 a World Heritage Site together with Mycenae. The citadel sits on a low rocky hill and is famous for its massive 'Cyclopean' walls, several metres thick. Within are a palace, shaft graves, a ramp linking the upper and lower town, and well-preserved corbelled galleries. From the acropolis you look over the Argolid plain and the Nafplio gulf. Allow 1-2 hours, and pair it with Mycenae.