Bourtzi is the one on the water, and the image on every postcard of Nafplio.
Diagram by Greece Trips. Free to reuse with credit - CC BY 4.0.
The Venetians built it in 1473 on a small islet in the harbour, a few hundred metres offshore, to guard the entrance to the port. It is the reason the town’s waterfront photographs the way it does.
What it has been
The building has had a stranger career than its postcard suggests. Over the centuries it served as a fortress, then a prison, and at one point the residence of the town’s executioner.
That last detail is the one people remember, and it is a genuine piece of the town’s history rather than a guide’s flourish.
Getting out to it
You visit it on a short boat trip from the quay - a crossing of a few minutes that small boats run through the day in season and more sparsely in winter, weather permitting.
Three things worth taking from that sentence: it is short, it is seasonal in frequency, and it is weather-dependent. We print no operator, fare or timetable, because none of those would still be right when you read this. Ask at the quay.
The one you photograph, and the one you visit
Bourtzi is unusual among Nafplio’s sights in that most people experience it twice and differently: from the waterfront, where it is the emblem, and on the islet itself, where it is a small fort.
If your time in Nafplio is short, the waterfront view is the one that matters and it costs you nothing. The crossing is the addition rather than the point.
How it fits the other two fortresses
Three fortresses ring Nafplio, one from each layer of its past, and each is reached a completely different way: one you climb, one you walk into, and one you reach only by boat.
- Palamidi is the Venetian giant on the skyline, 1711 to 1714, eight bastions on a 216-metre hill, reached by a long stair or a road.
- Acronauplia is the oldest and the easiest - the rocky headland right above the old town, walls layering pre-classical foundations under Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman rebuilds, reached on foot from the lanes.
- Bourtzi is this one.
Doing all three in a day is normal, and they are genuinely different experiences rather than three versions of the same thing. Things to do in Nafplio covers them together.
Practical notes
Getting to Nafplio: about two hours by road from Athens via the A7 / Moreas motorway in normal traffic, or a KTEL Argolida bus from Kifisos commonly timetabled at a little over two hours. No ferry, and the Argos rail branch has been suspended since 2011.
When to come: April to May and September to October are warm, comfortable and quieter. Midweek beats the weekend year-round, when Athenians fill the town.
We print no opening hours or ticket price, and the boat’s own schedule is the thing most likely to have changed since this was written.
Common questions
Can you walk to Bourtzi? No - it is on an islet a few hundred metres offshore, and the boat is the only way across.
Is it worth the crossing? If you have a full day in Nafplio, yes. If you have an afternoon, the fortresses you can walk to are the better use of it.
Does the boat always run? No. It is more sparse in winter and it is weather-dependent.
Next
Our Nafplio guide has the practicalities, things to do in Nafplio covers the fortresses, and where to stay covers the old town.