Pyrgos City
Welcome to Pyrgos!
Pyrgos is the capital of the Prefecture of Ilia and its largest city. It is a relatively new city, since its foundation took place during the occupation of Greece by the Turks, and is built on seven small hills. It is 4 kilometers away from the sea, 19 kilometers from Ancient Olympia, and 315 kilometers from the Greek capital, Athens. Its main landmarks are the two exquisite neoclassical buildings designed by Schiller, the Municipal Market and the Apollo Municipal Theater, plus the central square with the Eparcheion. Today it is inhabited by about 45,000 people.
At the place where the city is built today, archaeologists located the Ancient city of Dyspontion, and, at the city's suburbs, the Ancient city of Letrina. From this ancient city came the official name of Pyrgos, changed in the 1980's from Letrina. The city owes its name to a tower (in Greek 'Pyrgos'), located at the Eparcheion, built by Ioannis Tsernotas in the years 1512-1520 A.D. This tower existed in its place until June 1825, when the citizens, after the Sunday church preaching, pulled it down, blinded by civil fights... Continue
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