Administrative Region : Central Greece
Regional unit : Evoia
Amarynthos (Αμάρυνθος) Evoia
Amarynthos (Greek: Αμάρυνθος, [aˈmarinθos]), locally called Vatheia (Βάθεια), is a coastal town and a former municipality in Euboea, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Eretria, of which it is a municipal unit.[1] Its 2001 population was 4,141 for the town and 7,356 for the municipal unit. The Greek National Road 44 connects Amarynthos with Thebes on the mainland and Chalcis and Karystos. Amarynthos is located in Central Euboea and stretches along the coast of the South Gulf of Euboea, about 30 km southeast of Chalcis, 9 km east of Eretria, northwest of Karystos and north of Athens. Across the gulf lies Kalamos of Attica.
History
The area of Amarynthos, along with the region of Eretria, is wrapping up the most historically interesting region of Euboea. Many scientists place Eretria of the Mycenaean period in the location of the present town of Amarynthos.[2] The archaeological artifacts testify a permanent settlement in this location since the Late Neolithic period, around 3000 BC, which was one of the most important Helladic settlements and a significant port on the island of Euboea, during the Early Bronze Age. It had built its own trade with the Aegean Islands, concluded from the findings of Cycladic art in the region.
During the Middle Helladic period, Amarynthos had developed its trade with mainland Greece and produced magnificent pieces of the Minyean art, while in the Late Helladic period it was one of the main areas of Euboea. During the 2nd millennium BC, the Ionians arrived in the southern parts of Greece and settled Euboea, while the name of Amarynthos is mentioned in clay tablets with inscriptions in the Linear B script. Apart from the trade, the locals also occupied with agriculture, pastoralism, fishing and copper processing.
In ancient times, there was a festival in Amarynthos called "Amarýnthia",[3] dedicated to Amarysia Artemis, who was worshipped as the patron goddess of Amarynthos and whose shrine was located in the plain of the region, being one of the most important in Central Greece.[4] Parts of it were excavated between 1987 and 1992, hosted now at the Museum of Eretria. In Greek mythology, Amarynthos was a man from Eretria who usually ran after Artemis because of his love to her, and his name was given to the town. Pausanias in his Description of Greece, mentions, along with Amarynthos, a town in Attica called Athmonia, where the Athenians also celebrated Amarysia Artemis in a festival as splendid as the one in Amarynthos (1.31.5). Callimachus says that in Amarynthos, Artemis was worshipped as hornless (kolainis), because Agamemnon sacrificed to her a hornless ram made of wax, while Claudius Aelianus refers to the Eretrians who maimed animals to Artemis at Amarynthos.[4] Strabo, in the Geographica, locates the village of Amarynthos seven stadia distant from the walls of Eretria, to which the village belongs (10.1.10).
Amarynthos, like the whole of Euboea, was later ruled by the Macedonians, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Venetians and the Ottoman Turks until it joined the modern Greek state and its economy improved, as Amarynthos was first linked with pavement during the wartime period. In World War II, the Nazi Germany's troops burnt parts of the town, and after the Greek Civil War, its economy grew. After the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) and the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the arrival of Greek refugees from Asia Minor in Euboea, many of which settled in Amarynthos, boosted the population of the town.
Location and culture
Amarynthos features a beach which makes tourism its main industry other than agriculture and other services, thus several hotels, restaurants, bars and taverns can be found in the town. Amarynthos is built in a plain between the Mount Olympus and Mount Kotylaio. Its surroundings consist of forests which covers large parts of the area, farmlands are within the villages and mountains to the central and the northern parts. Amarynthos has a few schools, a lyceum, a gymnasium, churches, a post office, and a plateia, while its nearest hospital is in Chalcis.
Sites of interests
What is worth of visiting in the wider area of Amarynthos are the Byzantine churches of "Koimisi tis Theotokou", "Metamorphosi tou Sotiros" and "Zoodochos Pigi", while to the northeast of the town there is the Byzantine monastery of "Agios Nikolaos", with beautiful wall paintings of the 12th century. A Macedonian tomb one kilometre outside of Amarynthos in a location called Vlychos which is dated back to the 4th century BC and was excavated in 1897, a 14th century church named "Panagitsa" close to Ano Vatheia, and the famous "Skoteini Cave" located on a cliff 1.5 kilometre outside of the village Tharounia, are included in the sights of the region.[5]
Recent incidents
Teen rape case
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.[6] The Greek government has subsequently banned mobile telephones in school as a consequence of this incident.[7]
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. Minister for National Education and Religious Affairs, Marietta Giannakou, 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 Christodoulos of Athens, with the latter citing the Church's solidarity towards the family.[8]
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.[9] Finally after 3 years the so called responsible kids for the case, were found not guilty and was found a huge commercial trick of the media at that time in order to cover up governmental cases...
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.
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