Beautiful town, with vivid insular colors. It has white houses with two floors and yards with flowers. The town has great history as well as peculiar architectural character. Characteristic are the arches of its buildings as well as the square with the cannons and a very high shady plane-tree. It is built on two low hills, while in the center of its port there is a rock, nowadays named Marathonisi or else Chelonaki, with its breakwater. This rock is the historical islet of Sfaktiria. It is lying 50km south-west of Kalamata and it has 2,473 inhabitants. The present beautiful small town isn`t the same with the well-known ancient Pylos, which is frequently mentioned in history amd mythology. The town was built in 1829, according to plans of French architects of general Maison, who because of his love for the ancient Greek civilization gave the city this name.
Worth seeing places:
- Ancient Pylos of the historical times. It was situated north-west of the city and it became significant during the Peloponnesian War. It isn`t the prehistoric Pylos of king Nestoras, which took part in the Trojan War, reported by the historian Thucydides. On the ancient acropolis there are remains of the Roman, Protochristian and Hellenistic years, as well as traces of the city`s fortification and ruins of tomb, which, according to the tradition, belonged to Thracimidis, son of Nestoras.
- On the ancient building material of the 4th BC century, the Franks built (1278) a large castle, Paleocastro as it is named (it is built in an area of the cape which closes the north side of Navarino`s gulf). Only the outside wall of the castle is saved in a good condition. It is rectangle, it encloses extent of approximately 200m, while most of its square and round towers are still saved. However, posterior intervensions were made on the castle, which altered in some way its outside appearance. Near the castle, there is the "cave of Nestoras", mentioned by Pausanias, which communicates with the castle. A legent went that in this cave, Mercury hid the cows he stole from Apollo, while Pausanias reports that Nileas and the son of Nestoras used this cave as a stall.
- At the entrance of the anchorage of Pylos, there is Niocastro (in older times it was named Navarino), the newer castle of the city. It was built by the Turks (1573) in order to fortify the town after their defeat at Naupactos. It is one of the most well-preserved and charming castles of Greece. In 1829, it was repaired by Maison. Niocastro comprises a large enclosure with impressive ramparts, an exagonal acropolis fortified with six bullwarks on the highest point, another one south-west and a Turkish aqueduct which supplied the castle with water. Inside the castle, there are the ruins of the Goth church of "Metamorphosis of Sotiras", built by the Franks, which was later turned into mosque by the Turks. Nowadays, it is church again.
- On the way to Methone, in the area of Kamares, there were revealed remains of aqueduct.
- Inside the anchorage of Navarino, there is the rocky Sfaktiria islet which attracts many visitors. You can get there by sailboat or small motor boat. On the islet there is multitude of monuments of several ages. At the north end, on the hill of Prophet Elias, the remains of an ancient fortification wall remind of the tragic event of the Peloponnesian War, when 420 Spartans, encircled by the Athenians in BC 425, resisted for many days around two wells without drinkable water, till as many as they managed to survive were compelled to surrender. At the south of the islet there is the cenotaph of Tsamados, Anagnostaras and Sachinis, as well as the monument of Santarosa, the lover of the Greeks. They were all killed during the battle of Sfaktiria in the period of the liberating struggle against the Turks. On the islet there is also the grave of the prince Paul-Maria Bonapartis, nephew of Great Napoleon, who was killed on frigate "Hellas", near Spetzia, in 1827. At the north of the islet you will also see the grave of Megie, the French officer of Maison, who was killed on sea-fight at Navarino. In 1827, inside the gulf of Navarino, occured the homonymous historical sea-fight, significant for the liberation of Greece.
- The church of Panagia the "Sgrappa", at Eleophyto, 4km north of Pylos.
