Home History Porto Leone
19
Jul 11
Last Updated on 20 July 2011

Porto Leone

The final invasion by the Goths (395 AC.) was the death sentence of this city. Since then, the glory belonged to the past because it was not a city anymore until the Greek Independence.
Maybe it had few inhabitants that had left no rest in the arqueological register.

But what is sure is that we have no mention about the activity of this harbour, so if it was working it was in a small scale. Therefore his activity was not continuous, but owing to his perfect natural environment it was an occasional harbour for the Byzantine fleet and some of the numerous pirates of the Aegean.

Even the city lost his ancient and original name that was forgotten. In 1318 it became "Porto Leone", this name came from the old marble lion that was located in the port, after in this place the old Town Hall (Roloi, that is The clock) was built because this old marble lion was stolen in 1688, during Fr. Morozini's expedition against Athens, and taken to Venice where you can visit it today. But this wasn't the unique name in this period. The Franks gave the name "Porto Draco" and with the Turks from 1456 it was "Asian Port".

During the Turkish occupation the port was desert and only used for small intervals for commercial issues. In this area the old Monastery of St.Spyridon (1590) concentrated a small group of inhabitants but never it was a real city. For example the compilation of the numerous land owners during the Turkish period it doesn't mean that they were inhabitants as some theories assert, because these Athenians, and some times Ottomans, don't live there and they were

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