Editing Pylos (section)

=== The liberation of Pylos (6 October 1828) and the construction of the modern city ===
{{Main|Morea expedition}}
[[File:Entrevue du général Maison et d'Ibrahim Pacha, à Navarin, septembre 1828.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Meeting between General Maison and Ibrahim Pasha in 1828 in Navarino (by Jean-Charles Langlois)]]
On 6 October 1828, Pylos was definitively liberated from the Ottoman–Egyptian troops of Ibrahim Pasha by the French troops of the [[Morea expedition]] commanded by [[Nicolas Joseph Maison|Marshal Nicolas-Joseph Maison]].<ref name=":17">[[Nicolas Joseph Maison|Marshal Nicolas-Joseph Maison]], ''Dépêches adressées au ministre de la Guerre Louis-Victor de Caux, vicomte de Blacquetot'', octobre 1828, in Jacques Mangeart, Supplemental Chapter of the ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=OixCAAAAcAAJ Souvenirs de la Morée: recueillis pendant le séjour des Français dans le Péloponèse] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322121512/https://books.google.com/books?id=OixCAAAAcAAJ |date=2023-03-22 }}'', Igonette, Paris, 1830.</ref> The mission of this expeditionary corps of 15,000 men, sent by king [[Charles X of France]] to the Peloponnese between 1828 and 1833, was to implement the Treaty London of 1827, an agreement under which the Greeks would have the right to an independent state. The French troops liberated the cities of Navarino (Pylos), Modon ([[Methoni, Messenia|Methoni]]), Coron ([[Koroni]]) and [[Patras]] in October 1828.<ref name="EI2" />

The current city of Pylos was built starting in the spring of 1829, outside the walls of Neokastro, on the model of the [[bastide]]s of Southwest France and the cities of the [[Ionian Islands]] (which share common features, such as a central geometrical square bordered by covered galleries built with a succession of contiguous [[arch]]es, each supported by a [[colonnade]], as the [[Arcade (architecture)|arcades]] of Pylos or [[Corfu]]).<ref name=":21">{{in lang|el}} Kalogerakou Pigi P. (''Καλογεράκου Πηγή Π.''), ''The contribution of the French expeditionary force to the restoration of the fortresses and the cities of Messinia'' (''[http://www.army.gr/sites/default/files/h_symbolh_toy_gallikoy_ekstrateytikoy_somatos_apokatastash_froyrion_messhnias.pdf Η συμβολή του Γαλλικού εκστρατευτικού σώματος στην αποκατάσταση των φρουρίων και των πόλεων της Μεσσηνίας] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201013083555/http://www.army.gr/sites/default/files/h_symbolh_toy_gallikoy_ekstrateytikoy_somatos_apokatastash_froyrion_messhnias.pdf |date=2020-10-13 }})'', in Οι πολιτικοστρατιωτικές σχέσεις Ελλάδας – Γαλλίας (19ος – 20ός αι.), Directorate of the Army History (''Διεύθυνση Ιστορίας Στρατού''), 13–41, Athens, 2011.</ref> Pylos's urban framework was designed by [[Joseph Victor Audoy|Joseph-Victor Audoy]], lieutenant-colonel of the [[military engineering]] of the Morea expedition, who originated from [[Tarn (department)|Tarn]], a department of Southwest France. This plan was approved by the governor of independent Greece [[Ioannis Kapodistrias]] on 15 January 1831, making it the second urban plan (after that of Methoni) in the history of the modern Greek state.<ref>In the Archives of the Greek [[Ministry for the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works]] (ΥΠΕΧΩΔΕ) are 2 original copies of [[Methoni, Messenia|Methoni]]'s urban plan (signed by Ioannis Kapodistrias, one of which bears a bottom note from Audoy: "''Designed and drawn by me, lieutenant of the military engineering, Modon, 4 May 1829 – Signature – Audoy''") and a copy of Navarino's urban plan (signed by Kapodístrias on 15 January 1831). These urban plans carry respectively the Numbers 1 and 2 of the Archives of the Ministry.</ref> The fortifications of ''Neokastro'' were raised, a barracks was built (the "Maison's building" which houses nowadays the Archaeological Museum of Pylos), many improvements were made to the city (installation of school, hospital, church, postal service, shops, bridges, squares, fountains, gardens, etc.), the old Ottoman aqueduct, which had fallen into ruins until 1828, was restored (it then served until 1907), and the road between Navarin and Modon, the first road of independent Greece (which is still used today), was also built by the French engineers.<ref name=":21" />

Part of the Morea expedition were also 19 scientists from the "Morea Scientific Mission",<ref name=":5">[[Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent]], ''[https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8626687z Relation de l'Expédition scientifique de Morée: Section des sciences physiques] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220901043101/https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8626687z |date=2022-09-01 }}'', F.-G. Levrault, Paris, 1836.</ref> whose work proved essential to the ongoing development of the [[First Hellenic Republic|new Greek State]] and, more broadly, marked a major milestone in the modern history of archaeology, cartography and natural sciences, as well as in the study of Greece. According to one of their population censuses in the province of Navarino in 1829, it had a total of 1,596 inhabitants.<ref name=":5" /> Some French merchants and officers of the Morea expedition, who remained in the city with their families after the troops returned to France in 1833, settled in a district located in the north of the city, near a Catholic church that has since been demolished. This district is still called today "Francomahalas" (in [[Greek language|Greek]]: Φραγκομαχαλάς, from [[Arabic]]: محلة (''[[mahallah]]''), district) or "Francoklisa" (in [[Greek language|Greek]]: Φραγκοκλησά, church of the French).<ref name=":21" /> The French always had a particular interest in the city, and at that time, the greatest French writers wrote texts specifically dedicated to Pylos, such as [[François-René de Chateaubriand]] in 1806,<ref>François-René de Chateaubriand, ''Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem et de Jérusalem à Paris, en allant par la Grèce et revenant par l'Égypte, la Barbarie et l'Espagne'', Le Normant, Paris, 1811.</ref> [[Eugène Sue]]<ref>Eugène Sue, ''Combat de Navarin'', Paris, 1842. He had indeed himself participated in the [[Battle of Navarino]] on 10 October 1827 and had published a detailed description of it.</ref> and [[Victor Hugo]]<ref>Victor Hugo, poem ''Navarin'' in ''[[les Orientales]]'', Paris, 1829.</ref> in 1827, [[Edgar Quinet]] in 1830<ref name=":4">Edgar Quinet (member of the scientific commission of the Morea expedition), ''[https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6106058h.texteImage De la Grèce moderne, et de ses rapports avec l'antiquité.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220901043044/https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6106058h.texteImage |date=2022-09-01 }}'', F.-G. Levrault, Paris, 1830.</ref> and [[Alphonse de Lamartine]] in 1832.<ref>Alphonse de Lamartine, ''Souvenirs, impressions, pensées et paysages, pendant un voyage en Orient (1832–1833)'', Librairie Charles Gosselin, Paris, 1835.</ref>

In 1833, after the departure of the French, the name "Pylos" (in reference to the ancient city of King Nestor) was given to the new city of Navarino by royal decree of the newly installed king [[Otto of Greece|Otto I of Greece]].<ref name=":21" />