Porto Heli or Portocheli is a seaside town and homonymous bay of Argolida. It is located in the south of the prefecture, at a distance of 85 km from Nafplio, built in a natural harbor next to the ruins of the ancient state of Fishermen. Portocheli belongs to the municipality of Ermionida and its population is 1,817 inhabitants. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Argolida and has a highly developed tourist infrastructure. It is especially suitable for boat owners as its port has very good infrastructure and large capacity. It is surrounded by wonderful beaches such as: (Porto Heli AKS Hinitsa Bay, Chrysi Akti, Costa, Ververonda, Korakia, and Limanakia). The place is one of the most secular resorts in the prefecture along with Nafplio, which is why it attracts Shipowners, Big Businessmen and members of Royal Families. Boats depart from the port of Portocheli to the nearby islands of the Saronic Gulf as well as to the opposite coast of Kynouria.
The name of Portohelio according to the prevailing opinion is due to a gradual linguistic corruption of the name "Alieis", the ancient city that was located in the place of today's Portohelio. The name Alieis was corrupted to Halieis and then to Heli. To distinguish it from the nearby village of Heli (which today has been renamed Arachnaio) it also took the nickname "Porto" because it had a port. According to another point of view, its name (Heli) is one of the many Arvanite toponyms found in the area of the southern Argolis and subsequently acquired the prefix "Porto" for the reason mentioned above. The area around the village is one of the most important and expensive resorts in the country where many celebrities have summer houses and spend their holidays.
The ancient city of Alia flourished for about a hundred years, from
468 to 362 BC. It was built in the area of Buzeika opposite the current
settlement of Porto Helio, and its Acropolis was on the top of the hill,
in the location of Kastraki (Bizani). The settlement extended to the
neighboring hill where there are remnants of a wall, but also to the
whole hill up to and into the current sea which was dry at the time.
At the time of its heyday, it is estimated that it had 400-500
houses and 2,500 inhabitants, while the city's alliance with the
Spartans and the Athenians during the Peloponnesian War made it a
theater of military conflicts as well as a participant in battles. The
export of the very expensive purple (which was processed with secret
recipes in Hermione), the precious oil, its famous wine but above all
the important position of the Acropolis and its natural harbor made the
city famous.
It was one of the three ports of Ermionida along
with that of Ermione and Masita. Of course, Helios Bay was different
then. The area reached by the sea was much further inland, which is why
part of the city, especially two temples of Apollo, are today submerged
under water and mud, albeit at a shallow depth.
In 468, however,
the Argives destroy Mycenae and Tiryns, Sparta's allies, and the Dorian
Tiryns seek refuge among their tribal relatives, the Dryopes
Hermionites, following an oracle from the sanctuary of Apollo.
They grant them the region of Alia where they will cohabit for 150 years
with the native Dryopes. At some point the old inhabitants will conspire
with the soldiers of Demetrius the Besieger in 303 to slaughter the
Tiryns.
In 461, the Spartans, worried by the alliance between
Athens and Argos and the conquest by the Argives of the eastern regions
of the Peloponnese, send a merchant ship with thirty warriors and
captain Aneristos to capture the Alies. Two years later in 459 the
Athenians attack to occupy the city. There is an opinion that says that
they landed in the area of Flamboura and lost the battle that followed
(behind the current "Galaxias" hotel). In fact, in Kerameikos there is
an inscription commemorating the fallen in Alievsin and until 1960 there
was a tomb in the area.
In 430 and 425, however, the Athenians
plundered the city, while in 424-423 they concluded a treaty for the
installation of an Athenian garrison in it and the use of its port, a
treaty that lasted until 404. In 370-369, the Fishermen again became
allies of Sparta and they finally succumbed to Epaminondas and his
Argive allies. However, the peace of 362 between the Greek states (with
the exception of Sparta) ensured neutrality in the port of Alia, despite
its alliance with Sparta and its special prosperity.
Porto Heli has experienced significant population growth since 1879 with the exception of the 1907, 1951, 1981 and 2011 censuses when a decrease was recorded. Although it was a small village and one of the ports of Kranidi in 1879, after the war it developed into one of the most important tourist resorts of the country and the population grew spectacularly.
Sean Connery: Sean Connery has loved Orange in recent years. He has
been constantly coming to Argolis for the last few years and in 2013 he
decided to get his own villa in Porto Heli. Sean Connery and his
Franco-Moroccan wife, a painter Micheline, have always wanted to buy
their own house in the area so they could spend quiet moments in an
earthly Greek Paradise.
Sean Connery and his Franco-Moroccan wife
Micheline came to Greece, and after being guided to the Museum of
Cycladic Art in Athens, they continued their vacation in Greece and on
the occasion of this visit, they bought a villa in Porto Heli shortly
after.
The luxurious house is located in the same expensive
"neighborhood" that the now King of the Netherlands William-Alexander
has a house worth 4.5 million euros.
Also in the same area, among
others, the former King of the Greeks, Constantine II, and his wife, the
former Queen Anna-Maria, also had a house. The shipowner Dinos
Goulandris is a scion of the well-known family, Yiannis Mytilinaios is a
major shareholder of the Mytilinaios Group of the same name, as well as
Thodoris Kyriakou, son of the shipowner Minos Kyriakou.
Detailed shipping information for Porto Heli is provided by the Hellenic Navigator volume 2 and especially the Greek edition map: ΧΕΕ-135, which is the port marker of its port, as well as ΕΕΕ-130 which covers all the NE coasts of the Peloponnese and the Argolic Gulf .