Castle of Clermont-Chlemoutsi

By building castles in the Peloponnese, commonly known as the Morea, the Latins – or the Franks, the name that the Byzantines gave to the Westerners who occupied part of Greece after the Fourth Crusade – hoped to protect their possessions. In most cases, the Crusaders reused existent buildings; a few buildings were nevertheless constructed during the thirteenth century, constituting the true Frankish castles of Greece.

One of the most important of these castles is Clermont-Chlemoutsi, located a few kilometres from the town of Clarence or Klarentsa, now Kyllene, founded by the Latin conquerors in the north-west Peloponnese. It was the main fortress of the principality of Achaea, besieged by Geoffroy I de Villehardouin after the Fourth Crusade.

The Castle of Clermont-Chlemoutsi was built between 1220 and 1223 by Geoffroy I de Villehardouin on a site where no traces of earlier medieval constructions remain. It was given the French name Clermont; the Greeks called it Chlemoutsi[1]. The castle remained in the hands of the Franks until 1429, when Constantine XI Palaeologus (1449–53) annexed the Morea to his empire.

The castle is located at the centre of a plateau overlooking the coast and thus has wide-ranging panoramic views: from the top of the walls, Zakynthos may be seen to the west, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Lefkada and the Aetolian coast to the north, and the entire plain of Elis to the east. This strategic location had the advantage of securing the control of the passage inland and ensuring the overall defence of the province. Despite its position and dimensions, the castle does not seem to have been the scene of battles or of memorable sieges. It was more of a princely residence than a purely defensive construction. It frequently served as a jail, as it did during the Battle of Makryplagi in 1264 when Greeks were taken prisoner.

The fortress was mainly built of local limestone. Its plan comprised polygonal walls organised in galleries and a vast hexagonal construction in which were located the halls of the princely palace, laid out around an inner courtyard. The building has two main parts: an outer enclosure, located below, occupying three of the sides, and an inner enclosure on the south-east of the castle. The fortress was surrounded by a moat. A bridge covered by a barrel vault on the north-west served as the entrance. An elaborate system for collecting rainwater directed the water from the rooftops to large underground cisterns.

The Castle of Clermont-Chlemoutsi is an important example of thirteenth-century Frankish fortified architecture. The plan and architectural motifs are evidence that it was the work of a Frankish architect, trained in the techniques of philippienne architecture[2] and aware of the architectural practice of the Crusaders in the Near East. It nevertheless features a few elements that are local in origin, most likely because regional craftsmen and local raw materials had to be used. The castle thus used a fortification technique with which the Franks were familiar, but the principality’s limited financial means meant that it could not erect a castle of the quality of those built by the Crusaders in Syria.

[2] The structures built by Philippe-Auguste and his successors. Inexpensive and rational, these fortresses are characterised a geometric overall plan, with towers in the corners. The circular keep, located in a corner, is separated from the rest of the buildings.