Ancient Asine has been identified with the rocky promontory, today
called Kastraki, by the village
of Tolo.
The excavations began in the 1920’s by a French team but were
continued by the Swedish after the Crown Prince of Sweden
visited the site. They investigated the Acropolis and the parts of the southern
and eastern slopes of the Barbouna hill across it. It was found that people had
lived in the area more or less continuously since the Early Bronze Age or the
beginning of the third millenium BC until late Antiquity, approximately the fourth
century AD.
Asine was never a major site in the Argolid
but it nevertheless played an important role as a wellprotected harbour during
its history. Its strategic importance is very much in evidence at the site, where
today mainly the Hellenic fortifications are preserved. They were repaired in
Ottoman times and reused by the Italian occupation forces during the Second World
War.
Today, within the site there is a church dedicated to Virgin Mary.
This text is cited March 2004 from the Tolo
Business Association tourist pamphlet.
