01Highlight
Ancient Theatre
Carved into the Larissa hillside in the 3rd century BC. Eighty-nine rows of seating for more than 20,000 spectators - one of the largest theatres of the ancient world.
History
City of Hera, of Dorian power, of the Greek Revolution
01
Myth and prehistory
Argos has been inhabited without interruption since the 5th millennium BC, placing it among the oldest continuously lived-in cities in Europe. In myth it was founded by Inachos and consecrated to Hera; in the Homeric poems it is the city of Diomedes, who sailed with the Argives to Troy. On Aspida hill you can still trace a prehistoric settlement and the sanctuary of Apollo Deiradiotes.
02
A Dorian city-state
In the classical age Argos was one of the great Dorian city-states, a rival to Sparta and a leading centre of the arts - the sculptor Polykleitos, creator of the 'Doryphoros' and the canon of proportions that defined Greek sculpture, was an Argive. Its ancient theatre, with eighty-nine rows of seating, is among the largest of the ancient world.
03
Byzantium, Franks, Venice
Romans, Byzantines, Franks, Venetians and Ottomans each passed through and left their mark. Larissa Castle took its present form in three successive phases - Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian - and watches over the plain from 289 metres above the town.
04
Revolution and modern era
In 1821 Argos welcomed the fighters of the Greek Revolution; in 1829 the Fourth National Assembly convened under Kapodistrias in the church of Agios Ioannis - a founding site of the modern Greek state. Today Argos is a dense, working provincial town of neoclassical façades, open-air markets and a community that keeps its own everyday rhythm.
