Kalamata occupies the site of an ancient city, the identity of which has been disputed. The name clearly refers to ancient
Calamae, but it has been established in the 20th century that the actual site is that of ancient
Pharae, a city already mentioned by
Homer. It was long believed that the area that the city presently occupies was covered by the sea during ancient times, but the proto-Greek and
Archaic-period remains (Temple of Poseidon) that were unearthed at Akovitika region prove otherwise.
Middle Ages Pharae was rather unimportant in antiquity, and the site continued in obscurity until middle Byzantine times. Medieval Kalamata was not a port, as the local coast offered no shelter to ships from the weather, but lay further inland, at the foot of the western outliers of
Mount Taygetos. As the capital of the fertile Messenian plain, the town experienced a period of prosperity in the 11th–12th centuries, as attested by the five surviving churches built in this period, including the Church of the Holy Apostles, as well as the comments of the Arab geographer
al-Idrisi, who calls it a "large and populous" town. Following the
Fourth Crusade, Kalamata was conquered by
Frankish feudal lords
William of Champlitte and
Geoffrey of Villehardouin in 1205, when its Byzantine fortress was apparently in so bad a state that it could not be defended against them. Thus, the town became part of the
Principality of Achaea, and after Champlitte granted its possession to Geoffrey of Villehardouin, the town was the center of the Villehardouins' patrimony in the Principality. Prince
William II of Villehardouin was born and died there. After William II's death in 1278, Kalamata remained in the hands of his widow,
Anna Komnene Doukaina, but when she remarried to
Nicholas II of Saint Omer, King
Charles of Anjou was loath to see this important castle in the hands of a vassal, and in 1282 Anna exchanged it with lands elsewhere in Messenia. In 1298, the town formed the dowry of Princess
Matilda of Hainaut upon her marriage to
Guy II de la Roche. Matilda retained Kalamata as her fief until 1322, when she was dispossessed and the territory reverted to the princely domain. Morosini returned in 1685, at the start of the
Morean War: on 14 September 1685 the Venetians
defeated an Ottoman army before Kalamata, and again plundered and destroyed the town's castle, as it was judged obsolete. Kalamata was then ruled by Venice as part of the "
Kingdom of the Morea" (). During the Venetian occupation the city was developed and thrived economically. However, the Ottomans reoccupied Kalamata in the
war of 1715 and controlled it until the
Greek War of Independence. raises Messenia in revolt'', by
Peter von Hess Kalamata was the first city to be liberated as the Greeks rose in the
Greek War of Independence. On 23 March 1821, it was taken over by the Greek
revolutionary forces under the command of generals
Theodoros Kolokotronis,
Petros Mavromichalis and
Papaflessas. However, in 1825, the invading Ottoman officer
Ibrahim Pasha destroyed the city.
Modern period In independent Greece, Kalamata was rebuilt and became one of the most important ports in the
Mediterranean Sea. It is not surprising that the second-oldest
Chamber of Commerce in the Mediterranean, after that of
Marseille, exists in Kalamata. In 1934, a large
strike of harbor workers occurred in Kalamata. The strike was violently suppressed by the government, resulting in the death of five workers and two other residents of the town. During
World War II on 29 April 1941, a battle was fought near the port between the invading
German forces and the
2nd New Zealand Division, for which
Jack Hinton was later awarded the
Victoria Cross. Kalamata was liberated on 9 September 1944, after
a battle between
ELAS and the
local Nazi collaborators. Kalamata was again in the news on 13 September 1986, when it was hit by an
earthquake that measured 6.2 on the
surface wave magnitude scale. It was described as "moderately strong" but caused heavy damage throughout the city, killed 20 people and injured 330 others. Kalamata has developed into a modern provincial capital and has returned to growth in recent years. Today, Kalamata has the second largest population and mercantile activity in Peloponnese. It makes important exports, particularly of local products such as raisins, olives and olive oil. It is also the seat of the
Metropolitan Bishop of
Messenia. The current Metropolitan Bishop is
Chrysostomus III of Kalamata, since 15 March 2007. ==Sights==