“My lady Monemvasia, my stone ship. You have thousands of masts and thousands of sails. Yet you remain still, taking me on a journey throughout the world”, wrote the great poet Yiannis Ritsos for his homeland, fully illustrating the unique sensation created to those who visit it, especially if they enjoy a stay inside the castletown, where Byzantino Boutique Hotel is located. November 375 AD is a benchmark for the history of Monemvasia. It was then that the African plate moved towards the Eurasian plate and caused a devastating earthquake, over 8 Richter scale, which was accompanied by a huge tsunami. The earthquake is characterized as “universal” by the Byzantine historian Zosimos, who also noted that it affected mostly Peloponnesus and especially Mani, as well as other countries in the Mediterranean and it was meant to change the geography of the area completely. The ancient Akra Minoa (the modern Monemvasia) was cut off from land. According to Pausanias, it is when the oblong peninsula will take the form of an islet. The earthquake also resulted in the total or partial submerging of many important towns of the time, such as Plytra, Asopos, Vies, and Epidaurus Limera, as well as the fact that the peninsula of Onou Gnathos became an island, the modern Elafonisos.
