Kyparissia

Kyparissia is a town in northwestern Messenia in the Peloponnese region of Greece, seat of the municipality of Trifylia since the 2011 local government reform, with about 5,000 residents in the town proper and 7,088 across the municipal unit as of 2021. Known in antiquity as Cyparissia, an important port mentioned in the Iliad of Homer, it was called Arkadia in the Middle Ages and served as the seat of the Frankish Barony of Arcadia before falling to Ottoman control in 1460 and being destroyed during the Greek War of Independence in 1825, after which it was rebuilt under its ancient name. The town sits on the Gulf of Kyparissia on the Ionian Sea, one of the main breeding grounds of the endangered loggerhead sea turtle.