Temple of Poseidon

It is worth saying this before anyone gets on the bus with the wrong expectations: what is left of the temple of Poseidon in Poros is the foundations. A few courses of stone at ground level, the outline of the floor plan and little more. If you are after columns still standing, as at the temple of Aphaia on Aegina, this is not the place.

That said, it is one of the most historically loaded sites in the Saronic Gulf, and the journey there through the pines is worth it on its own.

What this place was

In the 6th century BC, the sanctuary of Poseidon on Kalavria was the seat of an amphictyony: a religious league of seven maritime cities that met here periodically. Among them were Athens, Aegina, Epidaurus, Hermione, Nafplio, Prasiai and Boeotian Orchomenos. A neutral, sacred space with a guaranteed right of asylum.

That last detail explains the episode that made the place famous. In 322 BC, after the Athenian defeat in the Lamian War, the orator Demosthenes fled the men of Antipater of Macedon and took refuge in this sanctuary. His pursuers surrounded him. According to ancient sources, Demosthenes asked for a moment to write a letter, bit the reed he was pretending to write with (where he had hidden the poison) and died before they could drag him out of the precinct. The people of Poros later raised a monument to him within the sanctuary itself.

The temple was excavated between 1894 and 1895 by a Swedish mission, and that is where the pieces now kept in the Archaeological Museum of Poros came from. A good part of the building material, however, had been reused centuries earlier on Hydra and on Poros itself.

How to get there and what it costs

The site is in the interior of Kalavria, about six kilometres from the town of Poros, in the area known as Palatia. It is free and open, with no fences, no strict opening hours and no ticket office.

There are three ways to get there. By scooter or quad is the most comfortable: twenty minutes from the port on a surfaced road, with a narrow final stretch. By bicycle it is doable but demands some legs, because there is a steady climb of more than a hundred metres of ascent. And on foot from the monastery of Zoodochos Pigi it is a walk of about forty-five minutes through the pines that many consider the best on the island.

The southern bus line does not come up here. It drops you on the coast road and you do the rest on foot or by taxi.

What you will find

A rectangle of foundations on an open plateau, surrounded by pines and with the sea visible between the trunks. It is signposted with discreet information panels, in Greek and English, explaining the layout and the history of the site.

There are no guides, no audio guides, no shop, no toilets. Nobody is charging anything. Very often there is nobody there at all, and that is exactly why it is worth coming.

The silence up here is different from that of other Greek ruins. No coaches, no rope barriers, no murmur of twenty groups following little flags. Just cicadas, wind in the pine needles and the outline of a building where things were decided twenty-five centuries ago.

Practical tips

Go early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The plateau is exposed and in July at midday the sun beats down without mercy, with nowhere to shelter once you leave the pine wood.

Bring water. There is no fountain and nothing open for several kilometres around.

Wear closed trainers. The ground is uneven, with loose stones and pine needles that slip on the slopes.

And set aside time before or after for the rest of Kalavria. The classic combination, and the one we recommend, is to do the monastery of Zoodochos Pigi first, walk up to the sanctuary along the path, and then go down for a swim at Monastiri or Askeli. It is a rounded half day, and it sums up rather well what Poros does best: history without a queue, nature without effort and the sea at the end.