Archaeological bargains have shown that the island Kalavria has been inhabited in periods since the 1200 BC. The people here seems to have lived quite and peaceful lives in the shadow of the antique Troezen on the mainland. Troezen had at this time a lot of important position in the society. A marine, religious and political federation, called Amphictony, was established here in 600 BC.
The first 7 members were Athens, Egina, Epidaurus, Hermione, Napflion and Orchomenus. The mission of each one of them was to defend the members' independence against the accelerated progress of Argolid on Peloponnesos.
The federation had its registered office in the holy area on Kalavria where the temple of Poseidon was built. Poseidon was the god of the sea and protector of the islan.
Antique Kalavria town was built on the mountain Prophet Elias's with perfect view over Vagionia bay. Kalavria had about 4000 inhabitants and supplied itself on fisheries and trade.
Around 273 BC the volcano of Methana had its last eruption that destroyed the whole town. The year 1460 the Ottomans invaded Peloponnesus obligating the population to escape out to the islands. Then the small island Sfairia, today’s Poros town got its first inhabitants.
In March 25, 1821, the Greek revolution gave back to the Greeks their territories after 400 years of Ottoman occupation. The biggest part of the revolution was financed by incredibly rich ship owners from Hydra and Spetses and it was their ships they used.
They had also hoped to get help from the Russians but they got no help and the war continued to the end of 1827 after which the freedom became a fact. By this time the war leaders had become ruined.
Their only fortune was broken ships but they had no funds to repair them. They started having great expectations from the government and wanted to take all initiatives after the war. Kapodistrias ignored all these requests and considered they didn’t have much to offer to the new State’s organization.
This made them very unhappy since Greece owed them the Independence. Kapodistrias finally decides, after many meetings and arguments, to allocate them compensation. Unfortunately only one eighth of the total promised amount is given to them.
The Aristocrats, especially the ones from Hydra, started felling betrayed and humiliated. They, therefore, developed an obstruction business against Kapodistrias and decided to hold independent traffic in 1829.
After 1540 the island got another wave of refugees that were mostly Arvanites, Orthodox Albanians. In beginning they built the houses up on the mountain as far from the coast as possible in order to protect themselves from pirates. The houses became more and more and over the time it formed Poros town. After 1821, once the Greek revolution was over they started building houses closer to the coast.
The obstruction business spread itself over the country and Kapodistrias started worrying about a civil war. He decided to get them before they do and therefore planned to block the port and to confiscate the boats with the Russian’s help.
The plan leaked out and the habitants of Hydra under Admiral Miaoulis commandment pressed the Greek naval base on Poros and succeeded to confiscate most Greek boats.
In 17 days, he held out against the Greek navy.After this tragic event Kapodistrias became so unpopular that he was finally murdered in Napflion 1833.
The Greek navy had its base here and the personnel with families needed rooms. When you are walking after the coast you can see that the houses are big. The ones on the hill are indeed smaller and simpler.
Poros Greece
