Palace of Nestor, Greece

Palace of Nestor highlights

The Palace of Nestor, the famous king of Pylos, is one of the most well-preserved Mycenean structures still visible today. Located just 14 km from Pylos, the palace was built by King Nestor, son of Neleus, and features in both the Iliad and the Odyssey.

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Last updated on: 15 August 2019

Palace of Nestor description

King Nestor, who holds an important position in the Homeric epics, led Pylos to the Trojan War with 90 ships and is presented by Homer as a wise old man, whose opinion was always respected by the Achaeans.

Comprising several sections and built on two floors, the palace was destroyed by fire in the late 13th century BCE and was never rebuilt, but many of the artifacts were recovered and are now on display at the Archaeological Museum of Chora and at the Archaeological Museum of Messenia, in Kalamata. The palace, an important centre in Mycenaean times, and described in Homer's Odyssey and Iliad covers an area of about two hectares and is perhaps the best-preserved Mycenaean palace in the Peloponnese identified so far.

The palace is the primary structure within a larger Late Helladic era settlement, once probably surrounded by a fortified wall. The palace was a two-storey building with store rooms, workshops, baths, light wells, reception rooms and a sewage system. The settlement had been long occupied with most artifacts discovered dating from 1300 BC. During excavation in 1939 around 1,000 Linear B tablets were found which after translation showed that they consisted of part of the royal archive. The Linear B clay tablets confirm that the palace served as the administrative, political and financial center of Mycenaean Messenia.

The Palace of Nestor consists of three main distinct wings, which in their turn are divided into 105 apartments. The large rectangular “throne room” with the circular fireplace, the bath with the ceramic tub and the numerous storage vessels are considered the most important ones.

In June 2016 the site re-opened to the public after the roof was replaced by a modern structure with raised walkways for visitors.

Although most of the palace has already come to light, investigations are still going on today.

Palace of Nestor related tours

We at Monterrasol Travel welcome you to see Palace of Nestor during multi-day private car tour. Contact us if you would like to customize your tour to Palace of Nestor.

We have developed several tours that visiting this beautiful place. But, if you have a special conditions or any from these tours fit you, please do not hesitate to contact us, we can organize a tour exactly as you would like. And remember, we have no problems to take you from almost any place where you stay, hotel or private accommodation.

Greece off-season UNESCO places tour 14 days from Athens. Visit main Greece mainland UNESCO and tentative list places. tour start in: Athens, Greece tour finish in: Athens, Greece tour duration: 14 days (13 nights) tour countries: Greece tour destinations: Arta, Chalkida, Corinth, Delphi, Dodoni, Epidaurus, Ioannina, Kalamata, Lamia, Larissa, Livadeia, Mesolongi, Messene, Meteora, Methoni, Metsovo, Mycenae, Mystras, Nafpaktos, Nafplio, Olympia, Palace of Nestor, Patras, Pylos, Rio, Sparta, Trikala This off-season tour is for people who would like to get to know deeply the history of Greece and walk that ancient historical places where are roots of culture of our civilization. Around the world such places are on the list of UNESCO. And many other places now expecting to be on UNESCO list; such places are prepared, available for public for fraction of cost, and are on so called UNESCO tentative list. During this tour we going to visit main UNESCO places and UNESCO tentative list places, located in Greece mainland. Greece is so rich with history that visit all UNESCO places in one tour will take very long time. Because of that we, Monterrasol Travel, created this tour to be able to visit the main UNESCO places in one tour.

off-season only tour 14 days Price from € 2,523   View tour details Request this tour