The fascinating story of the Achaia Clauss Winery in Patra city of the Peloponnese Region of Greece is outlined by cosmosphilly.com in the following article:
Greece of the 1850’s had a King: King Otto, a young Bavarian Prince – son of the philhellene King Ludwig I of Bavaria – who had been selected (by foreign powers) as the King of Greece.
This “Bavarian connection” had created opportunities for German businessmen. Attracted by this benign environment between King Otto’s (Greek: ‘Οθωνας) Greece and Germany, entrepreneurs such as the Bavarian Gustav Clauss sought agricultural opportunities in the temperate Mediterranean climate.
Coming, in 1854 to Patra, in the area known since ancient times as “Achaia,” Gustav Clauss saw such an opportunity, and a few years later, in 1861, bought a plot of land on a hill overlooking the town of Patra, and founded a wine-growing, wine-making establishment he named “Gutland” – which we now know as “Achaia Clauss.”
These were turbulent times – in the new world, America was rapidly sliding toward its Civil War, and Europe was at arms, fighting the Crimean War of 1854. Greece was also involved in the European wars, unfortunately on the losing side, and the resulting dissension – which eventually led to King Otto’s replacement by a Danish Prince (King George I) – along with a series of great internal political upheavals had created a certain amount of lawlessness on the land; so Clauss wisely built his winery in the form of a fort, as a defense against brigands and even hostile neighbors; hence the “Castle” look, which the entrance and other buildings still bear today.
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Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Vincent de Groot License: CC-BY-SA
