"The sacred cıty" a Mesolongion Travel Page by mindcrime

Mesolongi is a boring place to live but always nice to stroll around for a while and with a great history at the background so spend some hours here before moving on to the next destination of your itinerary. Mesolongi is located 245km away from Athens, 44km from Patra and 515km from Thesaloniki. It is the capital of Aetoloacarnania prefecture(central Greece) and has about 20.000 inhabitants. It was Venetian colony until 1700 and in 1770 Ottomans conquered it. The locals rebelled againsted the Ottomans in 1821 during the Greek war of Independence (1821-1829) and the city of Mesolongi became famous because of the heroic resistance against the Ottoman siege in 1822 and in 1825. The first one was easy and the greeks won but the second one is the reason that this town is also called the Sacred City of Mesolongi after the massacre that followed a year after (1826). It’s because the Ottomans tried for about a year (!) with 40.000 men to siege to siege the town. There were about 10.000 people inside and most of them died after the legendery “Exodus”. Mesolongi was liberated in 1829 and in our days it is symbolizes freedom.

-first of all go inside the walls for the old part of city, which is more picturesque, just a little though because the modern building are drab, the heat is high in summer and there is always a cloud above you durin spring and autumn :) The Entrance Gate is still there and part of the fortification also because it was rebuilt by Otto(1815-1867), the first king of Greece in 1832 that the great powers of that era decided to put a king (he wasn’t greek of course and as any other monarch wasn’t popular)
-then visit the Gargen of Heroes, it’s on your right hand as go inside. You will see many memorials and statues about famous Greek people since the ancient era but from the Greek Revolution also of course
-visit some museums like the museum of History at the Town hall, the gallery of Modern Art, the Centre of Culture and Art etc
-read some things about greek history and famous philhellenes(people who supported Greece at the 19th century) like Lord Byron that died in Mesolongi in 1824. Ok, you can do that at home but you will know what you’re lookimg at at the Garden of Heroes :) So, it will become cleared why so many people from abroad supported the greek revolution against the Ottomans.
-visit the salt lake and the lagoon full animals and a paradise for bird watching. Fishing is one of the main trade business of town but they also produce wine and tobacco.