The coloured houses
Pink, yellow and blue around a small bay with boats.
Ulrike Wegner โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Jimzoun โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Jimzoun โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Jimzoun โ CC BY-SA 4.0
**The village and castle are free** and always open. โ **โ The road down to the village is very steep and narrow with bends** โ drive slowly; **the car park at the bottom is very small and fills completely** at peak, and you may have to park above and walk down (and back up, which is hard work). โ **โ The climb to the castle**: a stone path of about **30โ40 minutes** from the village, **exposed with no shade and no water** โ do not do it at midday in summer; **closed shoes**. โ You can **drive part-way** towards the castle by another road and walk a shorter stretch โ ask. โ **The castle is unexplained ruins** โ its value is the walls and the view rather than buildings. โ **Options are few**: a handful of waterside tavernas at relatively high prices. โ **The beach is very small and pebbly.** โ **Late afternoon is the best time** โ the light on the coloured houses. Allow **two hours**.
๐ฌ Ask on WhatsAppOpen in Google Maps โ**A small village on a narrow isthmus joining the island to a peninsula crowned by a castle** โ unquestionably the prettiest village on Kefalonia. The formation is odd: **a thin strip of land** runs out from the coast to a rounded hill in the sea, **and the village sits on the strip itself** โ coloured houses in pink, yellow and blue around a small bay, with boats and cypresses. On the hill above stands a large **Venetian castle** of **1593**, built to defend the island against pirates, its walls enclosing a considerable area โ today open ruins reached by a path. โ The village was destroyed in the **1953 earthquake** like the rest of the island, **and rebuilt with French assistance** โ hence its square named for Paris. โ It is **a walking village**: small enough to cover in half an hour, and its best pleasure is sitting by the water.
Pink, yellow and blue around a small bay with boats.
Walls of 1593 enclosing the peninsula above the sea.
A narrow strip of land running out to the hill in the water.
Assos, 28084 Kefalonia, Greece
**A catastrophe that rebuilt almost the entire island โ and the key to understanding its architecture today.** โ **What happened**: in **August 1953** a sequence of shocks struck the southern Ionian islands, the largest devastating. **Kefalonia was worst hit**: **most of its buildings** collapsed โ it is estimated that over 90 per cent were destroyed or severely damaged โ fires broke out, and hundreds died. โ **The human effect**: **wide emigration** from which the island's population never recovered; many Kefalonians today are in Australia and Canada. โ **The architectural effect**: rebuilding in the 1950s was **low-rise and on earthquake-resistant foundations** โ which is why **most of Kefalonia looks modern**, unlike Corfu, which was not damaged to the same degree. โ **What survived**: **Fiskardo** in the far north, **the one village** whose Venetian houses largely came through โ which is why it looks unlike the rest of the island. โ **International aid came** for the reconstruction โ including French assistance, with which Assos was rebuilt.
**Yes if the weather is mild and you have ninety minutes; no in midday heat.** โ **What you gain**: **massive Venetian walls** of 1593 enclosing the whole peninsula, and a **view from above** over the village, the isthmus and the bays on either side โ a scene you cannot get from below; and inside the walls a **wide area** with remains of churches, buildings and an old prison among the pines. โ **The cost**: a **30โ40 minute climbing stone path** from the village, **exposed with no shade and no water**, and a descent over the same stone coming back. โ **Do not climb between 11 and 4 in July or August.** โ **The easier answer**: **there is a vehicle road** that approaches the castle from another direction and cuts the walk substantially โ ask in the village, because many people do not know it and climb the long path unnecessarily. โ **The castle is unexplained ruins** โ go for the view and the walls, not to understand history.
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