The Castle of Pteleos stands on a hill three kilometres southeast of the village, between Pigadi and Loutro. From the top you can see the whole entrance to the Pagasetic Gulf.

The main surviving building is a square tower, about eight metres wide and almost ten metres tall. It is built of small dark stones, with a few larger, older blocks at the base that were probably taken from an ancient building. There is no door at ground level: the entrance was placed high up, for safety. Next to the tower is an underground water tank, still in good condition.

Around the tower, the hill is covered with ruins — the defensive wall and the foundations of about 150 stone houses. This was not only a fort. It was the town of Pteleos itself during the Middle Ages. A second tower, called the Alatopyrgos, stands in ruins by the sea below.

Who ruled here

Homer names Pteleos among the towns that sent ships to Troy, and a Byzantine writer praised its wine in the late 12th century.

After 1204 the area changed hands several times: first Boniface of Montferrat, then the Knights Hospitaller, then the Despotate of Epirus and the Greek rulers of Thessaly. In 1319 Catalan mercenaries were advancing, and the people of Pteleos decided to accept Venetian rule rather than be conquered. Venice kept the town for 150 years. It fell to the Ottomans on 15 August 1470, three days after Mehmed II captured Chalkida.

Pteleos village is five kilometres inland, on flat ground below Mount Chlomo, part of the Othrys range. It is an ordinary farming village. Its houses are mostly modern, and it has not been listed or restored as a traditional settlement.

Pigadi, on the coast, is where people go in summer. It has a small harbour, fishing boats, tavernas by the water, and bars that stay open late in August.

There are more small settlements around the bay. Loutro and Agia Marina are quieter, with rooms and beach tavernas. Achilleio, at the mouth of the gulf, is the largest after Pigadi: a fishing village with its own harbour and a small island, Argyroniso, just offshore.

Visitors are spread across all these places, so the bay feels emptier than the numbers suggest. This is a Greek summer coast, not an undiscovered one.

Behind the bay the land rises quickly into Mount Chlomo, part of the Othrys range. The slopes are olive groves and low scrub, not forest.

A marked footpath connects the Mycenaean tombs at Gritsa with the springs and small wetland at Lichoura, at the head of the bay. It crosses the hill and takes a little over an hour. You can start from either end.

The tombs are the reason the path exists. Four small round tombs were excavated here in the early 1950s. They were in use between about 1400 and 1100 BC. Inside, archaeologists found weapons, seal-stones, gold and carnelian jewellery, and pottery from the northwest Peloponnese. These finds show that this coast traded widely and was not an isolated place.

Do not expect an organised site. The finds are now in the museum at Volos, and the tombs themselves are not looked after.

The beaches are the main reason people come. Most are sandy, and the water stays shallow a long way out, which makes them safe for young children. Several have been awarded the Blue Flag.

The two largest, Agia Marina and Lefki, run into each other. These are the organised beaches, with sunbeds, umbrellas and places to eat and drink.

Panagia and Rodia are the closest to Pigadi, and you can walk to them.

Further round the bay there is a line of small coves: Pachia Ammos, Karavotsaki, Draka, Kotsikia and Briniotissa. Most are reached by dirt road, and have no facilities at all. At Lichoura, at the head of the bay, a beach, the wetland and the archaeological area are all within a few hundred metres.