Archaeological Site of Lepreon

On yet another balcony of nature with an unobstructed view of the Ionian sea flourished the ancient city of Lepreon, capital of Triphylia. According to Strabo, Lepreon was a "land of bliss". Its impressive remains await the visitor to explore on the verdant western slopes of Mount Minthi, above the present-day village with the same name (Lepreo).

The founding of the city is attributed to the descendants of the Argonauts Minyans, who, when they were expelled from the island of Lemnos, ended up in Triphylia, founded the Minyan Hexapolis, with Lepreon being the most important of them. Although for a long period of its history it was autonomous, after the Persian Wars Lepreon found itself together with other cities of Triphylia in the territory of the state of the Eleans as a perioecic city. With the end of the Peloponnesian War, in 400 BC it regains its autonomy with the help of the Spartans and quite later joins the League of Arcadian cities founded by Epaminondas.

Lepreon is mentioned by several ancient authors, such as Herodotus, Xenophon, Aristophanes and Pausanias, who found it in decline when he visited the city around 170 AD. Lepreon survives until the Byzantine period and seems to have been abandoned around 800-1000 AD after pirate and barbarian raids. While the prehistoric acropolis has been identified and researched on the current hill of Agios Dimitrios of Lepreo with the remains of a settlement from the Early Helladic period (2500-2000 BC), however, the one that is of greater touring interest is the acropolis of the Classical and Hellenistic era on the hill to the north of the present-day village.

As a testimony of the prosperity and power that the city experienced, the highly elaborate fortification that protected it from invaders, with walls and towers built according to the mixed, isodome and polygonal system, still stands today at a height that in some places reaches up to 4 meters. Among the buildings preserved in ruins, stands out the classic Doric peripteral temple on the plateau within the acropolis dedicated to the goddess Demeter, according to the testimony of Pausanias.

After admiring the imposing landscape, the visitor can see the temple's crepidoma where the peristasis and the walls of the cella (sekos) were located, while several column drums, column capitals and parts of the entablature have been stored after the excavation of the monument around the temple. At a short distance to the east, has been uncovered a rectangular foundation made of shelly limestone which consisted the altar of the temple - sanctuary of Demeter.

Copyediting: Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia