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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MANI PENINSULA
(Taken from the book "THE MANI" by Bob Barrow)
In 1204 the Fourth Crusade attacked, sacked and looted Constantinople. Originally destined for Palestine, or Outremer as it was known, to rescue the Holy Places of Christendom from the infidels, this barbaric Crusade diverted to this rich and civilized Christian capital to loot and plunder its great wealth. Although the city was recovered in 1261 and a new Byzantine Dynasty, the Palaiologoi, established as emperors, parts of the empire remained occupied by western powers until the conquest of the whole of Greece by the Ottoman Empire.
Geoffrey de Villehardouin had already landed in Syria when the news reached him of the diversion of the Crusade to Constantinople. He set out for the city at once, worried that he would miss out on the spoils, but was driven west by winter storms and finally made a landfall at Methoni on the peninsula west of the Mani. Early the next year, he met with Guillaume de Champlitte at Nafplio and together they set out to conquer the southern half of the land they called the Morea as most of the North Peloponnese had already been subdued by Boniface of Montferrat.
This quest was continued after his death forty years later by his sons, Geoffrey II and Guillaume (William). William completed the conquest in 1248 when he captured Monemvasia after a two year siege but he was still plagued by a fierce Slavic tribe, the Meligs, who were established on the heights of the Taygetos. To control them, he built the castles of Mystras, Great Maina at Tigani and Beaufort at Lefktra (Stoupa).
At the battle of Pelagonia in 1259, William was completely defeated and taken prisoner. Within two years, the victor of this battle, Michael Vlll Palaiologos, had recaptured Constantinople and William was forced to cede his great castles as a ransom for his release. The southern Peloponnese was once more part of the Byzantine Empire, with the exceptions of Methoni, Koroni and Nafplio which had been sold to the Venetians, and remained in their hands until the Turkish occupation of Mistras in 1460.
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There had been many refugees in the Mani over the years but the most influential were the Byzantine families who came to the area after the collapse of Mistras. An elite known as the 'Nyklians' rose to supremacy and various families developed fortified enclaves which either controlled the entire village or adjoined a similar enclave of another Nyklian family. within the village. The barren landscape was unable to support the population and for the next four hundred years the clans fought bloody feuds for control of the meager resources and to dominate their locality. Just how crowded this area was is illustrated by the remarks of the Earl of Carnarvon who recorded in 1839, "In spite of the perpetual warfare which has devastated the Maina, I have not seen so many villages from Athens to Marathonisi (Gythio) as from Marathonisi to Tsimova (Areopolis). Indeed I think I have seen more between Tsimova and Kita than between Tsimova and Athens."
The intensity and ferocity of these feuds resulted in the unique architecture 'The Tower Houses' which dominate so many of the villages in the Deep or 'Mesa' Mani.
A description of the lifestyle that led to the development of the towers was recorded by A.G. Guillet in 1676: "As each one is a veiled enemy of everyone else and usually the closest neighbour is the worst enemy, each night one member of the family stands guard on the roof of the dwelling. Otherwise the neighbour comes over on purpose, lifts a tile and makes an opening to shoot those who are sleeping. Cases are known where someone found the opportunity to dig a hole under his enemy's house; they filled it with gunpowder like an explosive charge and blew up the entire family." He also recorded the pirate activities of the Maniats as being a "festival for the Maniats" and that they used "small boats, easy to sail and drawing little water".
Only Nyklian families could raise tower houses or ordinary houses with marble roofs or with "kamara" - vaulted roofs - and from these towers, the clans, who were often based in the same village, carried on their blood feuds and vendettas.
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