Reference.com

Amarynthos

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Amarynthos or Amarinthos (Greek: Αμάρυνθος), locally Vatheia or Vathia (Βάθεια) is a town (which is also a municipal seat) and a municipality in Euboea, Greece. Its 2001 population was 4,141 for the town and 7,356 for the municipality. Amarynthos is linked with the GR-44 connecting Thiva on the mainland, Chalkida and Karystos.

Location

Amarynthos is located about 30 km east of Chalkida, 9 km east of Eretria, northwest of Karystos and north of the capital city of Athens. Across the island is Kalamos in Attica.

Settlements

Municipal districts

Population

Year Town population Change Municipal district population Percent of the municipal district Percent of the municipality Municipal population Change Percent of the prefecture
1981 3,309 - - - - - - -
1991 3,638 +329 or +9.94% - - 6,068 - - -
2001 4,141 +497 or +13.6% 4,195 98.71% 56.29% (town)
20.32% (municipal district) 		7,356 +1,288 or +21.23% 3.42%

Geography

Amarynthos features a beaches which makes tourism its main industry of the village other than agriculture and other services. It features hotels, restaurants and taverns. Amarynthos is built between the Mount Olympus and Kotylaia. Its length is approximately 20 km from east to west and 30 to 40 km from north to south reaching the hear of the island and near the other side of the island. Its geography consists of forests and covers about 2/3 to 3/4 of the area, farmlands are within the villages and mountains to the central and the northern parts. At the municipal boundary with Eretria and Dirfys is Mount Olympus.

History

The area around Amarynthos with history which lost in the depths of the century along with the region of Eretria which describes from one interest from the historic piece of the island. Many scienists dates back Eretria to the Mycenaean period in the spot of the Amarynthos' timeline. Along with the archaeological artifacts, in Amarynthos, it created an only settlement during the Neolithic period (6000-3000 BC). Later in the Bronze Age (3000-2100 BC), Amarynthos was one of the most important Proto-Helladic settlements and its prehistoric port in the island of Euboea.

Amarynthos built its own trading tactics with the Aegean Islands which sees from the Cycladic objectives which was founded in the area. During the Mesohelladic period (2000-1650 BC), the city had narrow trading routes with the mainland and ran admirable proofs on its architectural stuff. DUuring the first Late Helladic period, it was one of the main areas of Euboea, the name Amarynthos was written in the signs of Linear B. With the exception of the trading with other businesses, its residents lived off in agriculture, cotton and metalling.

The area was mainly rural of Amarynthian Artemis, the temple was located in the field. The settlement was excavated between 1987 and 1990 and is founded today at the Eretria Museum.

Amarynthos was later ruled by the Macedonians and the Romans, the Byzantines, the Venetians including a part between the Ottoman rule and the Ottoman or Turkish until the Greek War of Independence of 1821, it joined the new country and its economy improved, Amarynthos was first linked with pavement during the wartime period. After World War II and the Greek Civil War, its economy were rebuilt. Only a few inhabitants left Amarynthos but not its area, some of its residents around the area moved to Amarynthos and boosted its population growth and industry but slowly in recent years.

Amarynthos gained national attention in Greece in October 2006, when the mother of a schoolgirl of Bulgarian descent pressed charges against four high school boys, sons of a priest, a police officer and a high school professor, for raping her daughter in the school's toilets, whilst the attack was allegedly filmed by female classmates using a mobile phone. The Greek government has subsequently banned mobile telephones in school as a consequence of this incident.

The controversy began with the decision of headteacher to suspend the four boys for five days (a decision described by the Greek education ministry as shockingly lenient), as well as also suspending the girl. Education Minister Marietta Yiannakou ordered the ministry to investigate whether the decision by the school's teachers' council was legal, and the girl and her mother were received by Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Christodoulos, with the latter citing the Church's solidarity towards the family.

This was followed by an anti-racist protest march, with mostly anarchist participants. The protesters vandalised a monument in honour of the people of Amarynthos massacred by communist partisans, during the Greek Civil War. This made people of the village angry, and violence soon erupted. The villagers attacked the protesters with sticks and pick-axes, and many had to receive medical care.

Forest fire

The forest fire ravaged the town and almost the entire municipality with small sporadic exceptions. The fires on August 24 and 26 came from Aliveri. Its hotels were damaged but its buildings were protected from the fire, the centre of the village was protected by firefighters. Firefighters along with fire trucks and planes that also came from other parts of Europe. The fire lasted several days. Several groves and forests will take several decades to recover to its original level, it also harmed and destroyed its tourist industry.

Sites of interests

The Amarynthos Folklore Museum attracts a lot of tourists, in which it contains old specimens which were used mainly for its worls of its inhabiants, the . Akoma which is one kilometre west of the city in the location of Vlychos or Vlichos (Βλυχός) features a Macedonian tombs from the Hellenistic period, it was excavated in 1897 and it is squared. Επίσης το Λαογραφικό Μουσείο Αμαρύνθου αποτελεί πόλο έλξης των τουριστών, όπου στεγάζονται παλιά αντικείμενα που αποτελούσαν τα κύρια εργαλεία απασχόλησης των κατοίκων της Αμαρύνθου, ενώ εντυπωσιακά είναι τα χειροποίητα προϊόντα στον παραδοσιακό αργαλειό. Ακόμα, περίπου ένα χιλιόμετρο δυτικά της πόλης, στη θέση , βρίσκεται καμαρωτός Μακεδονικός τάφος της Ελληνιστικής περιόδου, ο οποίος ανακαλύφθηκε το 1897, είναι σχεδόν τετράγωνος και περιέχει δύο νεκρικές κλίνες.

Other

Amarynthos has a few schools, a lyceum (middle school), a gymnasium (secondary school), churches, a post office, restaurants, bars, taverns, a square (plateia). Its nearest hospital is in Chalkida and its university are in Athens.

See also

References

External links

Northwest: Dirfys North: Kymi Northeast: Konistres
West: Eretria
 Amarynthos East: Taminies
South: South Euboic Sea



Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Wednesday March 05, 2008 at 03:01:55 PST (GMT -0800)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation