Bodonítsa

Bodonitsa stands on the slopes of Mount Kallidromon above the pass of Thermopylae. After the Fourth Crusade, Boniface of Montferrat granted the place to Guy Pallavicini, who established a Frankish marquisate to guard the route between northern and southern Greece. Its castle and the bishop's seat gave the small hill town an importance far beyond its size. The marquisate survived the collapse of the Latin Kingdom of Thessalonica and the arrival of the Catalan Company. In the fourteenth century it passed through the hands of the Venetian Cornaro and Zorzi families. The Zorzi continued to rule until the Ottomans conquered Bodonitsa in 1414, bringing the long history of the Frankish frontier lordship to an end.