Patra (or Patras) is a city in the north-west Peloponnese, on the shores of the Patrassky Bay. This is the biggest city of Peloponnese. There are quite a lot of people, about 230,000 inhabitants (along with small suburbs).
And also, the Patra is one of the most ancient cities of Greece, because it was founded in the 6th century BC, the Ahetis Sparta, the ancient Greek tribes, and they lived there until the Terrible Doriians were supplanted from the peninsula. Once upon a time the Patra was one of the most significant cities of Greece, its cultural and shopping center, were the times of terrible decay, especially after earthquakes, and lush blooms.
Well, today, the Patr is a developed noisy and crowded city that tends to tourists who arrived on this land to immerse themselves in the mystical history of antiquity, which is thrown over the ruins of the old buildings of the city. What can be viewed in Patra?
Winery "Aheya Claus" (Achaia Clauss Winery)
This is one of the oldest and large wine-growing enterprises of the country. The business is here here in 1861, when Some Gustav Claus ordered the castle in the Aheiya area, which was famous for his magnificent winery since the time of Ancient Byzantium.
Aheya is located 35 ki from the patch. In his new castle, Claus organized the winery, and put this beginning of a great enterprise. By the way, in 20 years after the construction of the plant, the castle visited Empress Elizabeth Austrian - a monthly in her honor called the cellar with wines ("Imperial Wine Cellar"). This, by the way, the largest wine cellar in the whole country. Here are the most valuable samples of Vintage villages of different years, including very old, for example, 1906. After the empress, the plant was visited and other famous personalities were visited and their honor was called the wine barrel in the cellar.
Today, the winery produces about 70 wines, accessible to each resident of the country and the tourist, as well as very expensive exclusive stamps that are produced in limited quantities. The entire state of the wine cellar has millions of euros.
Archaeological Museum of Patras (Patras Archaeological Museum)
Perhaps no city of Greece do without its own archaeological museum. Here is the patronic no exception. In addition, the museum is the second largest museum in Greece. Of particular interest are the exhibits of the era of the Neolithic, Roman and Mycene periods. The richest collections of weapons and VAZ amazing imagination!
The museum, by the way, is quite new, it has been working since 2009 and covers an area of 28 thousand square meters. The building of the museum is also impressive (built in the form of a huge metal hemisphere). At the moment, the museum includes construction and plant extraction with an area of 500 square meters.
Monastery Mega Speillon (Great Cave) (Monastery Mega Spileon)
The temple was built in 362 in the Helmos Mountains, 100 km south-east of the Patras. The monastery is built on a mountain peak of about 900 meters high, under a rock cave of a depth of about 30 meters. The temple hidden in rocky formations was simply impossible not to capture, not even notice, sometimes. This monastery is famous for inside the holy relics, the power of the saints and carved from the wax icon of the Virgin and the Savior. It is claimed that this icon was among the 70 icons created by Luke, but there is no confirmation of this. At the temple, a small temple is organized, where you can look at numerous religious relics and ancient artifacts, for example, traditional costumes, ancient manuscript, a precious golden cross, engraving and paintings. Also during the monastery there is a library that has about 3,000 books.
Andrei First Cathedral (Agios Andreas)
This Orthodox Church accommodates up to 5,500 people and is one of the largest churches in the Balkans. Impressive religious paintings and icons, as well as the honest chapter of Andrei First-Called, along with a part of the cross, on which he was crucified. In the Patra, this saint especially read, since in the 1st century of our era, he made many kind cases - healing the imposition of hands, resurrected the dead. Interestingly, the cross, on which Andrei maritime marriage crucified by order of the ruler of Egeate, had a bevelous, as Saint considered himself unworthy to take death on the same cross as Jesus. Until now, this beveled cross is called the "Andreevsky Cross", and this is one of the revered symbols of Christianity. The holy power has been transported more than once from the city to the city, until they returned to their place in patters.
And the church in the Nepologan style, which was discussed, was just erected at the very place where the apostle and died. The cathedral began to build at the beginning of the last century and solemnly discovered in 1974. The construction in the form of the Greek Cross is impressive: a five-meter gilded cross, which can be seen from afar, near-12 domes-bells of smaller size, but also with crosses.
The facades of the temple are decorated by portico and Corinthian columns. Internally, the decoration is incredibly beautiful-machine windows, whole rows of mosaic with the image of saints, including Christ, the Virgin and the Saint Andrew himself. Inside very light. The floor of the temple is covered with mosaic patterns depicting plants, birds, fish and animals. You can also see a carved wooden chandelier. Cathedral is located on Agiou Andreou Street.
Castro
This is a castle that was built in about the middle of the 6th century on the ruins of an ancient Acropolis, at a low hill of about 800 meters from the sea. The castle covers a territory of 22,725 m² and consists of a triangular outer wall, reinforced with tower and gates, and an initially protected PVOM, and the inner part, also protected by the RV.
The castle was built during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor of Justinian I, after the catastrophic earthquake of 551. During construction, the materials of the pre-Christian construction in this place and in the surrounding area were used. Something was stolen, for example, the body and the head of the marble Roman statue that became a symbol of the castle. The statue known as "Patrinella" - Virgo, which, as expected, was supposed to turn into a man, during the Ottoman Empire guarded the city from illness and sadness (when the important inhabitants of the patra were dying).
Fort remained in constant use for a very long time, up to World War II. In the Byzantine period, the fortress was deposited by Slavs, Saracins, Normans and many others, but the castle was not destroyed or taken opponents. By the way, the power of the fortress was attributed to the influence of the patron saint of the city, St. Andrew.
Currently, the castle is used to conduct cultural events, especially in the summer. Also on the territory there is a theater with a capacity of 640 seats.
You can visit the fortress from Tuesday to Sunday, from 8.30 am to 15:00.