At the sites of “Tris Eklissies” and “Skali” in Messolonghi, a part of the fortification of the Hellenistic period is preserved. According to the prevailing view this is the fortification of the port of the city of Pleuron. Other scholars, however, identify this site with the Aitolian cities of Pylene (later Proschion), Olenos and Phana.
The harbour would have opened into the lagoon, which in antiquity extended to this point and communicated with the open sea through a canal that was in use until the years of the Revolution.
Between 2010-2015 a rescue excavation was carried out of the fortification, a large part of which had previously been destroyed for the construction of the National Road. The excavation revealed unknown parts of the fortification system, as well as building and burial remains dating to the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, to the Hellenistic and the Christian times.
The currently preserved fortification section is approximately 580 m long and follows a straight line in a NE-SW orientation. To the south its line is lost in the marshy plain. It is reinforced with three rectangular towers, which are a later addition. Another part of the wall with a parallel layout to the one uncovered presumably belonged to some kind of rampart.
In the location of “Skali”, on the southern skirts of the hills where the “Castle of Kyra-Rini” and “Asfakovouni” stand , a part of a cobbled road (kalderimi) of the years of the Turkish occupation is preserved, about 400 m long and 1.00-2.5 m wide. It is called “Tourkostrata” (Turkish-road), and links Messolonghi with Aitoliko. Its course probably coincides with the ancient road that connected the settlements of this region; the later public Roman arterial route passed through this point.
In the same place, described by historians as a ‘difficult place of access’ between Messolonghi and Aitoliko, in 1823 the garrison and the many inhabitants of the town of Messolonghi managed to deal a terrible blow to the Turkish forces, who had been charged with the siege of Aitoliko. They had gone to Kryoneri, the port-town of Aitolian Kalydon, to receive food and ammunition sent to them by Isouf Pasha Strezis from Patras.
The fortification at Tris Eklisies is visible from the Ionian Road and accessible from a country road, but it is not an archaeological site that can be visited.
