File:Great walls of Palamidi Fortress... great mass of masonry, with walls and fortifications that made it impregnable, broods menacingly over the town.jpg

English: The citadel of Akronauplia consists of 4 successive fortification walls, each one added to the other. The earliest is at the western end of the cape, which is also the highest part of the hill. This earliest is at the western end of the cape, which is also the highest part of the hill. This is the fortress built by the Byzantines in the 12th and 13th centuries * Castel dei Greci whose walls had incorportated the remains of the ancient fortifications. It comprised the house of the Garrison Commander and 2 churches, one of which was the Cathedral, converted into a mosque in 1540. Today, the Byzantine buildings are barely preserved and most of them have disappeared under Venetian additions and alterations, such as the barracks on the northern side ( used as a prison until a few years ago ). A little lower down, east of the Byzantine fortress, the Franks built their own citadel * Castel dei Franchi of which only the foundations of the ruler's palace have survived later on the palace served as the home of the Venetian chief fiscal officer ( Camerlengo ). At the southern tip of the narrow strip that joins the cape to the land- the modern Arvanitia coasts- there used to be a moat that protected the fortress and continued northwards up to a small bay formed by the sea. A wooden drawbridge was thrown across it.