History of Tripolis

The history of the town can be traced no further back than the fiftenth century, when it was known as Tripolitsa or Dropolitsa. It developed very slowly during the early years of Turkish rule, growing at a more rapid pace during the brief period of Venetian administration (1685-1715), when it became a centre for commerce thanks to its geographical position at the centre of the Arkadian plateau and at the intersection of the road routes across the Peloponnese.

Tripolitsa acquired further political, and later economic, importance when in 1718 the Turkish pasha of the Peloponnese moved his headquarters there. In 1785-1790, after the Orloff revolt of 1770, the Turks fortified the city and made it their main military base. Among the important early successes of the Greek War of Independence was the capture of Tripolitsa on 23 September 1821, by a body of revolutionaries under Theodoros Kolokotronis.

In June 1825 the town was retaken by Ibrahim's forces, but it fell to the Greeks again three years later, after a close siege. When the Greeks entered the town, Ibrahim set fire to it; Tripolitsa burned for nine days (7-16 February 1828) and nearly all its buildings apart from the public fountains were destroyed. The only buildings to have survived from before the War of Indipendence are the "Mantzouneion" or "Katholikon", at 41 Georgiou A St, which is now the Municipal Library, and the Turkish medresse or seminary, at 6 Ayiou Dimitriou Square, which successive tasteless renovations have rendered more or less unrecognisable.

(Taken from the "Cultural Map of Arcadia" pamphlet, published by the ETBA Cultural Foundation)