Palamidi Fortress sits over two hundred meters above Nafplio and was built by the Venetians in the early eighteenth century during their second period of control over the Peloponnese. It fell to Ottoman forces within a year of its completion and later played a role in the Greek War of Independence. After independence, the fortress served as a prison, including for the Greek revolutionary leader Theodoros Kolokotronis, who was held within its walls on charges of high treason. The fortress is widely considered one of the finest examples of Venetian military architecture in Greece.

The blue-hour view shown here appears in the window between sunset and full dark — arriving in Nafplio in late spring or early autumn gives you the longest, most luminous version of it.