Elassona or Elasona (Ελασσώνα), older form: Elassonas is a town and a municipality in the Larissa Prefecture in Greece. During antiquity Elassona was called "Oloosson" and was a town of ancient "Perrevia", known today as Thessaly. Its 2001 population was 7,233 for the town and 14,563 for the municipality. The municipality had a land area of 348.888 km² at that time. The town is ranked fourth in population in the prefecture when it is up to towns and cities. It is situated at the foot of Mount Olympus, the mythic place of the twelve Olympian gods. Elassona is bypassed by the GR-3 (Larissa - Kozani - Florina).
Elassona is also a province in which it has six municipalities and three communes. The province has 52 settlements, village and towns.
In 2006 the municipal district of Tsaritsani chose to leave the municipality and become a separate community. The loss of its population and land leaves the remaining municipality with an adjusted 2001 census population of 12,056 and a land area of 291.097 km².
History
Unlike the rest of Thessaly which was annexed, Elassona and the northern half of Thessaly did not join Greece in 1881 as its battle for Greek annexation was unvictorious, only in the Balkan Wars saw the area liberated from the Ottoman Turks on October 6, 1912 by the Greeks and finally annexed the municipality and the region as well as the northern part of the prefecture to Greece.
Subdivisions
Municipal districts
Population
(Statistics, 1981-2001)| Year | Town Population | Change | Municipal district population | Municipal population | Change | Percent of the municipality | Percent of the prefecture | Density |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | 7,146 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1991 | 7,225 | +79 or +1.11% | - | 15,637 | - | - | - | 45/km² |
| 2001 | 7,233 | +8 or +0.11% | 7,762 | 14,563 | -1,074 or 6.87% | 49.67% | 5.21% | 42/km² |
Geography
Its geography includes farmlands in the valley areas, the mountains to the west and east and forests in the west and east as well as grasslands, ledges are to be founded in some areas and barren area in the higher elevations.
Elassona is flowed by a river called the Elassonitis or the Elassonitikos and the Titarisio, both empties into the Pineios River, Thessaly's longest river. The river divides the town into two parts, the older city which is built on the Olympiotissa hill and is also Varosi or Varossi (Βαρόσι), and in the new sity which is in the right side of the bank of the river. These two parts of the city is connected with three bridges and one historic bridge. Last, the other part is near the Kefalovrysi Lake.
Transportation
Elassona is linked with the old GR-3 and is bypassed to the east. Elassona is located 70 km southwest of Katerini, 38 km NNW of Larissa (old: about 50 km), 22 km NW of Tyrnavos (old: 30 km), east of Deskati and Grevena and 78 km ESE of Kozani.
Municipal changes
Until March 15, 2006, Tsaritsani was part of the municipality of Elassonas and functioned as a municipal district. Under the law 3448/15-3-2006, Tsaritsani separated from the municipality and declared a commune.
Other
Elassonas has schools, lyceums (middle school) gymnasia (high school), banks, churches, a post office, a few supermarkets, a police station, a health centre and pharmacies and a square (plateia).
Notes
External links
- elassona.com.gr - Over 300 pages and 1,400 photos on the Elassonas province
- Elassona - LeukiPoli.gr - A small bit of Elassona
- Elassona - LeukiPoli.gr - Latest News of the Elassona district
- Elassona (municipality) on GTP Travel Pages
- Elassona (town) on GTP Travel Pages
- Kallithea Elassonos' Homepage
- Map and aerial photos:
- Street map information from: Mapquest, LiveLocal or Google or Yahoo! Maps
- Satellite images: Google or Microsoft Virtual Earth - image now available
- Coordinates:
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Last updated on Wednesday October 01, 2008 at 05:42:33 PDT (GMT -0700)
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