Like a lord from another time, the castle of Mendenitsa controlled the passage that connected Thessaly to southern Greece, facing the Malian Gulf and the Gulf of Euboea. The name of the Lombard Marquis Guido Pallavicini is carved into its foundations, while it is rumoured that he built it as the first Marquess of Medieval Vodonitsa (as Mendenitsa was called at the time), providing a tireless fortress in one of the most resilient Frankish states in Greece.