Palamidi is the giant on the skyline: a Venetian fortress completed between 1711 and 1714, its eight linked bastions sprawling across a 216-metre hill above Nafplio’s old town.
Diagram by Greece Trips. Free to reuse with credit - CC BY 4.0.
The question everyone asks, and the honest answer
How many steps?
Local legend says 999. Guidebooks tend to print figures nearer 850 to 900. The reference works give no count at all, so treat any number as folklore rather than fact.
We are not going to print one either. What matters is the climb itself, not the tally - and every confident figure you will read is someone repeating another travel page rather than anyone who counted.
Two ways up
The stair from the edge of town is the one people mean when they talk about Palamidi. It is a long, steady climb.
The road goes to the top as well, which is the answer if the stair is not happening - because of heat, knees, or the time of day.
That choice is worth making deliberately rather than discovering halfway up. Go early or late: this is an exposed hillside in a part of Greece that gets properly hot, and the climb is the reason April to May and September to October are the months our guide recommends for Nafplio.
What you are actually looking at
Eight bastions, linked, spread across the ridge rather than stacked into a single keep - which is why it reads as a sprawl from below rather than a tower. It is the largest and the most visible of the town’s three fortresses, and the one that defines the skyline.
The other two, because they are completely different
Three fortresses ring Nafplio, one from each layer of its past, and each is reached a completely different way: one you climb from the edge of town, one you walk into from the lanes, and one you reach only by boat.
- Acronauplia is the oldest and the easiest: the rocky headland immediately above the old town, walls layering pre-classical foundations under Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman rebuilds. You reach it on foot from the lanes.
- Bourtzi is the one on the water, Venetian, 1473, on a harbour islet - a short boat trip from the quay.
Things to do in Nafplio covers all three together.
Practical notes
Getting to Nafplio: about two hours by road from Athens via the A7 / Moreas motorway in normal traffic. The KTEL Argolida bus from Kifisos is commonly timetabled at a little over two hours, running through the day. There is no ferry, and the Argos rail branch has been suspended since 2011.
We print no opening hours or ticket price. Those change, and a confidently wrong opening time is worse than none - check before you go.
Midweek beats the weekend year-round in Nafplio, when Athenians fill the town.
Common questions
Is it really 999 steps? Nobody can source that. It is the town’s own legend, guidebooks disagree with it and each other, and the reference works decline to count.
Can I drive up? Yes - there is a road to the top as well as the stair.
How long does the climb take? We give no figure, because it depends entirely on you and the heat. Go early.
Next
Our Nafplio guide has the practicalities, things to do in Nafplio covers the three fortresses, and where to stay covers the old town.