Consulates. British (next Gr.-Hôt. de Patras): consul, F. B. Wood; vice-consul, G. W. Crowe.—United States (opposite the Gr.-Hôt. de Patras): consul, A. B. Cooke; vice-consul, H. J. Woodley.
English Church (St. Andrew’s), near the station (see above); service at 11 a.m.
Patras, the third town of Greece (pop. 37,700), is surpassed in its trade by the Piræus only. Currants, the staple produce of the Peloponnesus, and wine are the chief exports. The town was destroyed by the Turks in 1821, and after the war of independence was rebuilt with broad and regular streets bordered with arcades.
Patrae first rose to importance under Augustus and afterwards gained great wealth by its trade. In 1205 the Franks made it their base for the conquest of the Peloponnesus (Morea). Since the 15th cent. it has belonged successively to the Venetians, the Pope, the Byzantines, and the Turks, and since 1833 to the kingdom of Greece.
The main street is that of Hagios Nikólaos (St. Nicholas), leading to the S.E. from the quay. The third cross-street to the right leads to the Platia Hagios Geórgios, containing the theatre and law-courts. The second side-street to the left leads to another square with the High School, which contains a few ancient sculptures. The first street to the N.E. running parallel with the Hagios Nikólaos Street leads to the Castle, once Venetian, then Turkish (now barracks and prison), which affords a fine view of the gulf.
Excursion to Olympia by railway (5 hrs.), see Baedeker’s Greece.
The Railway from Patras to Athens (137½ M., in 6½–9½ hrs.; see p. [496]) is preferable to the steamers, as the traveller thus gains several clear hours for Athens. The Corinth Canal is used by the Società Nazionale and Achaia Co. only. The voyage round the Peloponnesus to the Piræus (360 M.) takes more than a day.
The train skirts the narrow S. margin of the *Gulf of Corinth, the grand mountains of which recall those of the Norwegian fiords. Between the ruined fortresses of Rhion and Antirrhion, a little way from Patras, the gulf narrows to 1¼ M. and soon, near Naupaktos, contracts again. 25 M. Ægion (Buffet); 33 M. Diakophto, whence a rack-and-pinion line mounts the hills inland. Then, above two deep bays on the N. bank, towers Mt. Parnassus. At the E. end of the gulf lies (81 M.) Corinth (halt of ¼ hr.; Buffet, déj. 4 dr.). In the isthmus of Corinth the train crosses the Corinth Canal (3¾ M. long, 25 yds. wide, 26 ft. deep) by a bridge 170 ft. high, and then skirts the N. bank of the Saronic Gulf (p. [494]). On the right the eye ranges as far as the mountains of the Argolis peninsula and Ægina. Beyond (108 M.) Megara we near the N. coast of Salamis. Beyond (120½ M.) Eleusis the train turns inland and passes through the depression between (r.) Mt. Ægaleos (p. [494]) and (l.) Mt. Parnes into the Attic plain. Arrival at (137½ M.) Athens, Peloponnesian Station, see below (hotel-agents in waiting; carr. 2 dr.).
Most Steamers (see p. [501]) set out in a W. direction from the Gulf of Patras, holding straight out to Kephallenia and keeping distant Ithaca to the right. They then steer to the S. between the promontory of Chelonatas, the W. point of the Peloponnesus, and the island of Zante or Zakynthos. Beyond the cape and the little harbour-town of Katakolo, the calling-place for Pyrgos and Olympia (p. [501]), the coast recedes and forms the sweeping curve of the Gulf of Kyparissia; behind rise the heights of the Lykaeon (4659 ft.). Later on we pass the Strophades on the right. At the extremity of the Gulf of Kyparissia the Ægaleon (4003 ft.) marks the beginning of the Messenian Peninsula. The steamers double the S. point and from here to the Piræus their course is the same as that of the Naples boats (see pp. [493], 494).