history
of Stoupa
Stoupa was known in ancient times as Leuktra, a Free Lakonian City which declared independence from Sparta. This name survives as Lefktron, the village immediately inland from Stoupa on the other side of the main road. Pausanias called here on his travels and recorded that:
“Leuktra is two and a half miles from Pephnos [Agios Dimitrios]. Why the city is called Leuktra I have no idea, but if it was named after Leukippos, son of Periers, as the Messinians say, I suppose that is why the people here worship Asklepios most of the Gods, believing he was the son of Leukippos’s daughter Arsinoe. There is a stone statue of Asklepios and elsewhere of Ino. There is also a shrine and statue of Priam’s daughter Kassandra, locally called Alexandra; and there are wooden idols of Karneian Apollo exactly according to the traditions of the Lakonians of Sparta. On the Akropolis is a sanctuary of Athena with a statue and there are a shrine and sacred wood of Love at Leuktra; in the winter water runs through the wood but even if it flooded it could never clear away all the leaves that drop from those trees in early spring. I will describe something that I know happened on the ground near the sea at Leuktra in my own time. A wind carried fire into the wood and destroyed most of the trees; when the place was stripped bare they found a statue put up there to Zeus of Ithome [ancient Messene]. The Messinians say this is a proof that Leuktra belonged to Messinia in ancient times but it is possible that even if the Lakonians lived at Leuktra from the beginning, they could still worship Zeus of Ithome.”
Clearly Stoupa was a substantial settlement, ownership of which was disputed by Lakonia and Messinia, but all that survives from Pausanias’ description is the acropolis, now called the ‘Kastro’ (castle) after the fortress built there by William (Guillaume) de Villehardouin in 1252 following the conquest of the Peloponnese by the Franks. It was called Beaufort but very little remains to be seen except for a few walls and the remains of a tower on the summit. Panoramic views make the short walk up worthwhile (refer to the map). The castle was also called ‘Yisterna’ which means cistern and there is a large cistern on the summit. The Archaeological museum in Kalamata displays a small but beautiful marble head of Athena that was found here.
There are very few old houses in Stoupa but that is not surprising: because of attacks by the Turks and pirates, nobody would have lived so close to the sea shore and they would have concentrated further inland at Lefktron, where there used to be some tower houses. In a list of Kapetani given to him by Petrobey Mavromichalis, Leake recorded that Lefktron was the headquarters of the Christeas family who governed the area including Agios Dimitrios and Platsa. Stoupa itself did not develop until after the Greek War of Independence, when it was deemed safer to live on the shore, and even now it is little more than a village: the population during the winter is very small compared to summer when tourists swell the population, attracted by the two sandy beaches. Despite its relatively late development, the main church, still under construction, is impressive both in its size and construction – all made from formed shuttering and reinforced concrete. Locals will tell you that the building of the original church in Stoupa (immediately next to the new one) was the result of a typical Maniat dispute. Lefktron, being the older village, had housed the parish church for some time and the inhabitants of Lefktron had apparently appropriated the pews around the walls: a fact resented by the people from Stoupa. So, one Sunday, they arrived early and occupied the pews themselves – only to be thrown out by the priest. In a fit of rebellion, each Stoupiot picked up a large stone and deposited it on land in Stoupa donated by ‘Old Man Lazaros’. On this site they built their own church, Agia Triada, which you see today. Ironically, the church in Stoupa is now used by both villages; the churches in Lefktron are open only on their own saint’s day.
