In ancient times Cirrha existed as a fortified city that controlled access to Delphi from the Corinthian Gulf.

This behavior prompted many of the other tribal entities of the adjacent regions to form the Amphictionic League, an alliance for the protection of the cult of Demeter in Anthele (initially) and of Apollo in Delphi.

Tradition goes that they added a curse in the name of Apollo: that the soil should bring forth no crops, that the children of the women and livestock should be deformed, and that the entire ethnic group that inhabited the city should be eradicated.

A leading figure of the attack was the tyrant[4] Cleisthenes of Sicyon, who used his powerful navy to blockade the city's port before using an allied Amphictionic army to besiege Kirra.

The earliest, and therefore probably most reliable, account is that of the medical writer Thessalos, who in the 5th century BC wrote that the attackers discovered a secret water pipe leading into the city after it was broken by a horse's hoof.

Polyaenus also gave credit for the strategy not to Kleisthenes but to general Eurylochos, who allegedly advised his allies to gather a large amount of hellebore from Anticyra, where it was abundant.

Port infrastructure, part of which is still visible, protected the city from the sea, whereas a sturdy wall, with rectangular towers, built probably in the mid-4th century B.C.

Next to the modern Church of the Dormition of Mary a rectangular area was discovered, measuring 160 x 130 meters and surrounded by porticoes giving to the interior open-air rectangle, where the temple building was erected.

The Medieval tower on the seaside as well as some traces of port infrastructure attest to the prosperity of Kirra in the Byzantine and Frankish period.