Things to do in Monemvasia

From the mainland, Monemvasia looks like a bare rock in the sea. The town is on the other side of it, facing out to open water, and you cannot see a single building of it until you have walked through the gate. That concealment is the whole design, and it makes the arrival one of the best in Greece. Everything worth doing here is inside those walls or above them.

The name, which is also the plan. Monemvasia means single entrance, and that is exactly what it has: a causeway from the mainland to the rock, then a road along the base, then one gate in the wall. Nothing else gets in. Cars stop outside, and everything inside moves on foot or by handcart along stone lanes barely two metres wide.

The lower town, which is lived in. Inside the gate is a medieval town still in use: vaulted lanes, Byzantine churches, houses restored as hotels, and a main square opening to the sea with the church of Christ Elkomenos and a small museum in the old mosque opposite. It is beautiful and it is also busy, and the two facts sit together rather than cancelling out. Coming early or staying the night is the difference between the two versions of the place.

The upper town, which is the part people remember. A steep zigzag path climbs from the lower town to the summit plateau. That settlement is ruined and largely empty, apart from the church of Agia Sofia standing on the cliff edge, and the walk up is what most visitors talk about afterwards.

What the plateau is actually like, said plainly. It is open, unfenced and exposed, and the drop from the church terrace is straight down. We describe that rather than rate it: there is no barrier and no supervision up there, and nobody publishes an assessment of it. Know what you are walking onto, particularly with children or in wind, and make your own decision.

The two towns are one visit and two different experiences. The lower town is a place people live and trade in; the upper is a place they left. Doing both in sequence, in that order, is the visit, and it is why an hour off a coach is not enough.

Gefyra, the modern town at the causeway end. Most services are over there rather than inside the walls, which matters for anything practical. It is also where you park.

How to plan it. Two nights, at least one of them inside the walls, because the town after the coaches leave is a different place. Monemvasia is at the southeast tip of the Peloponnese, roughly four hours by road from Athens, with buses from the capital. Our Monemvasia guide has the practicalities, where to stay covers inside the walls versus Gefyra, and Athens to Monemvasia covers getting there.