KALAMAI

also spelled Kalamta industrial city and port of the southern Peloponnese and capital of the noms (department) of Messenia, Greece. It lies along the Ndhon River at the head of the Gulf of Messenia. After Ptrai, it is the principal outlet for exports from the Peloponnese, a port of call for small passenger ships, and the seat of the metropolitan bishop of Messenia. The city long has produced silk cloth, flour, liquor, and tobacco. The main market for high-quality olives, currants, and other fruit crops of the Messenian plain, it is served by an airport and has rail links to Ptrai and Athens. A Byzantine centre in the 10th century, Kalmai became in 1208, after the Fourth Crusade, a fief of the Villehardouin family, whose castle stands on a hill behind the city. The Venetians first occupied it during the first Turko-Venetian war (146379) and again in 1685; in 1770 and in 1821 it was the headquarters for revolutionaries in the Peloponnese. In 1825 it was sacked by Muslims. Kalmai was a major evacuation point for British forces in Greece in 1941. Pop. (1991 prelim.) 45,090.