Sparta is a city in the Peloponnese and the capital of the Prefecture of Laconia, in Greece. It has a population of 16,239 inhabitants.
Today's Sparta is built on the eastern foothills of Taygetos, south of the center of the ancient city of the same name, near the right bank of the river Evrotas and at an altitude of 210 m.
The city was re-established after the liberation of the country in 1834, after a decision of King Otto and in an official ceremony on January 1, 1857, the authorities were established from Mystras to the new city, which was the first in Greece to be drawn up with an urban plan. It has squares and tree-lined streets, large squares, neoclassical buildings and rich water supply.
Its glorious past and the close distance from the legendary Mystras attract the attention of many visitors - tourists with cruise ship approaches to Gythio. Remains from the temples of Orthia Artemis, Athena of Chalkio, Apollo of Carneio, as well as a theater of the Roman era are preserved from ancient Sparta [2].
It is the financial and commercial center of the prefecture. It has a remarkable archeological museum and olive museum. The Archaeological Museum of Sparta, housed in a single-storey neoclassical building in the city center, was built in 1875-76 to designs by Theophilos Hansen. This Museum, like almost all Greek Museums, is characterized by conservative traditional forms of organization and operation. Its premises, moreover, are rather insufficient to accommodate a number of important finds, which are in its warehouses. For this purpose, the Association of Friends of the Archaeological Museum of Sparta set as its primary goal the establishment of a new large museum at the entrance of the city, near the iron bridge of Evrotas (site of Fix facilities) .. It is the only city capital of the prefecture of Peloponnese that is connected to a railway network (although such a connection was foreseen in the 19th century). However, it communicates by road with Kalamata and Tripoli, while it also has a small airport.
