The olive capital of the world — deep purple Kalamata olives, a Byzantine castle above the bay, and the gateway to the wild Mani peninsula
Kalamata is the capital of Messenia, the southwestern region of the Peloponnese — a large, modern Greek city built behind a long sand-and-pebble beach on the Messenian Gulf, overlooked by a 13th-century Byzantine castle on the hill where the ancient acropolis stood. Its name is known worldwide for one reason: the Kalamata olive (Olea europaea 'Kalamon') — a large, dark purple olive with an almond shape, cured in red wine vinegar and olive oil, with a rich, meaty, slightly bitter flavour that is fundamentally different from any green olive. Kalamata extra-virgin olive oil, from the same region…
The ancient city here was Pharae, a Messenian settlement; the modern city takes its name from Kalamion, a Byzantine fort built on the ancient acropolis in the 13th century under the Villehardouin princes of Achaea, who controlled the Peloponnese after the Fourth Crusade. The city was almost entirely destroyed by the Ottomans in 1685 when the Venetians recaptured the Peloponnese briefly, and again in 1825–26 by Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt during the Greek War of Independence — most of the current city dates from the 19th century rebuilding. The Kalamata earthquake of 1986 (5.9 magnitude) caused wid…