Russian Naval Base

The Russian Naval Base (Rossikos) was built amphitheatrically along a picturesque bay west of the island’s harbour. After the end of the Russo-Turkish war, Poros’s sheltered harbour served as the Russian fleet’s supply station where the Russians built an infrastructure that included kitchens for baking ship’s biscuits and warehouses for storing coal and other supplies.

In the early 20th century, as the Russian Navy’s power began to wane, Greece’s Ambassador to Russia Alexandros Tombazis, a native of Poros, proposed that the tsar cede the base to the Greek Navy. The tsar agreed and the Russian Naval Base was handed over to the Greek Navy, which was based in Poros at the time.

The facilities dell into disuse and eventual disrepair; in 1989, the Ministry of Culture declared the Russian naval base’s remnants as historically preserved monuments.