Salmeniko Castle
Coordinates: 38°16′03″N 21°56′20″E / 38.2675°N 21.9389°E
The Salmeniko Castle (Greek: Κάστρο του Σαλμενίκου, Kastro tou Salmenikou) or Orgia or Oria Castle (Κάστρο Οργιάς/Ωριάς, cf. ) was a castle at the foot of Panachaiko mountain, in the modern municipality of Aigialeia, Achaea, Greece.
The castle was first built by the local barons of the Latin Principality of Achaea between 1280 and 1310. With the years, a large town developed around it. The site was naturally strong, at the top of a hill behind which the river Foinikas ran. Because of the steep cliffs there, no fortifications were required on that side.
In 1460, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II invaded the Peloponnese, and the castles of the Byzantine Despotate of Morea submitted, one after another, often without resistance. Salmeniko was the last stronghold to offer resistance, under the command of Graitzas Palaiologos. The fortress resisted for a year, as the Ottoman siege guns were unable to destroy the walls. Only after the Janissaries managed to find and cut the fort's water supply line, did the town surrender. According to folk tradition, the residents threw sponges suspended from ropes from the castle, and thus collected water from the river below, until the Janissaries discovered it and started cutting the ropes. The town's inhabitants, 6,000 according to the historian Stefanos Thomopoulos, were enslaved, while 900 children were selected for the Devşirme.
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