It seems that one of the first buildings of the early modern era was the monastery of the Dormition of Mary or of Panagia (the Mother of God) built above the ancient gymnasium.
The first Westerner to have described the archaeological remains in Delphi and offered a rare view of the area for a period relatively unknown was Ciriaco de' Pizzicolli otherwise known as Cyriacus of Ancona.
In 1766 came to Delphi a group of three men, namely the Oxford epigraphist Richard Chandler, the architect Nicholas Revett, and the painter William Pars, in the course of an expedition funded by the Society of Dilettanti, which promoted the study and collection of Greco-Roman antiquities.
[4] Apart from the antiquities, they also related some vivid descriptions of daily life in Kastri, such as the crude behaviour of the Muslim Albanians who guarded the mountain passes.
[5] His descriptions and are the fine engravings by Pomardi, which decorated their book, published in 1819, constitute a valuable source on daily life in Kastri and Amphissa.
For example, he describes a dinner at Chrisso or the hospitality offered to him and his companion by the priest of Kastri in a single-roomed house without ventilation for the escape of the smoke coming out of the hearth.
A travelling destination such as Delphi naturally attracted the great Philhellene Lord Byron, who visited in 1809, accompanied by his friend John Cam Hobhouse.
The increasing numbers and influence of visitors possibly contributed to the final achievement of a deal between the French and Greek state, which ended up in the expropriation of the village Kastri, the relocation of the inhabitants and the implementation of the Great Excavation in Delphi.