Beauty around us / Nafplio-Bourtzi

Greece is a beautiful country –It is a fact broadly acknowledged. It has amazingly diverse landscapes, scenery and people (everything I like to capture, that is!)There are cities that are truly ugly and villages so heavenly beautiful you cannot believe you are walking their streets. And then there is Nafplio.Nafplio is a city in Peloponnese, populated by about 14000 people, it was the first capital of the Greek State between 1828 and 1833, the place where the first prime minister, Ioannis Kapodistrias, was assassinated and probably the most beautiful city in Greece. I could happily live there.The city’s main attractions are Palamidi, Akronafplia, the House of Armansberg, the Archaeological museum at Syntagma (Constitution) Square, the National Gallery-Alexandros Soutzos Annex and of course, famous Bourtzi.  Bourtzi (Turkish for “tower”), Nafplio’s reference point, is a small Venetian fortress, almost completely covering the islet on which it is standing. It was erected, in its present form, in 1698. After 1865 it was used to house the judicial executioners (because “they were hated by the inhabitants of Nafplio”) of those inmates of Palamidi prison sentenced to death. In a nutshell, Nafplio is probably the most Romantic place in Greece and Bourtzi is its gem!