Kardamyla, Chios

Kardamyla is a large village and former town in north-northeastern Chios, 27 kilometers from the city of Chios. Today it belongs to the homonymous municipal district of the Municipality of Chios. In the past, the term "Kardamyla" included both the "Ano Kardamyla", which is located some distance from the sea, and their coastal settlement-port, Marmaro, as well as the smaller settlement Rachi. In this entry we refer mainly to the upper settlement, in agreement with the Hellenic Statistical Authority. There was also the Municipality of Kardamyla.

Ano Kardamyla or Pano Chorio or simply "the Village" of Kardamyla is one of the largest and oldest villages on the island of Chios. Their average altitude is 80 meters above sea level. Kardamyla is built on the site of ancient Kardamyli, on the eastern slopes of Mount Kranos and in particular on their hill-natural citadel, Gria. The nearest settlements (except for Marmaros) are Nagos, to the northwest, and a little further to Lagada, to the south-southeast.

The village is characterized by its traditional architecture, its narrow streets, its cobbled alleys and its stone houses.

Historical data - Kardamili

The name of Kardamyla comes from the name of the ancient city of Kardamyli which was built in almost the same place, and this from the word Kardamyli = kind of bread or pasta from barley (see also Athenaeum, C 114). Kardamyli is mentioned by Thucydides (VIII 24) in connection with the landing of the Athenians in Chios in 411 BC, and by Stefanos Byzantios together with Kardamyli of Messinia: "he lived for two days and is near Chios". The phrase "near Chios", that is, near the island's capital, is not surprising, because it also writes about Volissos, which is even further away from the city of Chios.

From an oral tradition quoted by Zolotas, it seems that, since the ancient cities were abandoned, during the Middle Ages, as happened in other villages of Chios (eg Elata, Mesta), there were many different settlements in the area, which were united under the threat of pirates: in the beginning it was 24, then 20, then 16 until after a long pirate raid “the villages all deserted and everyone came and gathered in the castle, then they captured and built from the outside until 1775, you press me They built you until 1800. From there, 4 (municipal) elders and a village with one name remained. "

Indeed, the older residents in the early 20th century remembered that the village had 16 separate neighborhoods or parishes, corresponding to the "villages" (small settlements) or genera that settled it, and then the following eight remained: the Farangiades, the Harkiades, the Makrinades, Vagiana, Melides, Aspiotes, Moscow and Lygnos. These until the Destruction of Chios in 1822, as 4 neighborhoods are mentioned: Glyftika, Kyminadika, Nikoloudika and Poniroudika, which also elected the 4 "elders" mentioned in the above narrative.

For the surrounding area, the "Kardamylia country", there are also several references to the old topography. The gold bullion of the New Monastery of Michael Paleologos mentions the metochion "Kardamylion", whose ruins are preserved at the site of Neravlaka, "the despite the Source and now called Metochi".
Toponyms

The "(Upper) Village" still has several neighborhoods today. Parishes that also constituted districts were Agia Kyriaki (the old metropolis), Agia Paraskevi and Choriopanagia (= the Lord's Resurrection old metropolitan church), while other places in the village are Kalimas, Kandilia, Pyrgari, `` Agrelas, Flegges, Fonopetra (= rock or cliff of the killer), Alatsoudos, Kampanaris, Voukolia, Pefkias, Prinarakia, Poulos, Trypiti, Papalas, Trochalos, Epano Geitonia, Spilia, Kroukeli and Aspros Patos.
Population

The resident of the village is called Kardamylitis or Kardamylousis or Skardamylitis (and Kardamylios in the purgatory). The evolution of the population of Kardamylos in the official censuses is shown in the table.
Population of Kardamyla `Year of census Residents
1961 1.318
1971 915
1981 717
1991 830
2001 776
2011 710

According to Zolotas, "the Kardamylians call themselves neither Crete nor Maniatas, although for the similarity of the pronunciation, and for the city of Kardamyli, there are indeed many attractors according to tradition the origin of the Spartans or M . ”

"The right-wing mind of the Kardamyli people took advantage of this nature of the place, so that the rest of Chios can be named after the disbelief of a participant, even if they are four-dimensional envy, meaning by the" Kardameni genkhisi echinokis deenthos "man, if they are polymath and cunning of Odysseus, they would certainly present Kardamyla as more than enough. " (Georgiou I. Zolotas: History of Chios, volume A, p. 643)

Economy and culture

Kardamyla has a fertile but small plain between the two settlements. However, their inhabitants have turned from ancient times to the sea and merchant shipping. It seems that the existence of two different deep bays - natural ports, Marmaros and Parpants - played a role in this. Over the generations, Kardamyla has produced several important families of shipowners.

Few people are engaged in agriculture and their products are citrus fruits, olives, oil, almonds, figs, grapes, pomegranates, quinces, vegetables, legumes and a few cereals. According to Zolotas, the oldest productions were the wood horns (25,000 okades per year in the 1920s) and "fine wine", as well as 7,000 to 8,000 sheep and goats.

The Kardamylites did not lag behind in letters or sciences. Kardamylites were the historian of Chios, Georgios Zolotas, the university professor Emmanouil Zolotas, the metropolitan Konstantinos Deligiannis, the scholars Christos Sarikakis and Georgios Madias, who also served as high school principals, the notorious Akoumandas and the distinguished philologist Ioannis Sylonis Ioannis. Also, Saint Nikiforos Chios (+1821), Saint Anthimos Vagianos (+1960) and the priest-priest Stamatis Hartoularis (+1822) while Kardamyla is the homeless of the independence fighters Hartonioda Hartoulakis (during the Middle Ages) (the 1821).

Today's parish churches of Kardamyla are honored in the name of Agios Nikolaos (in Marmaro), Agia Paraskevi, Agios Loukas and the Holy Cross. The village belongs ecclesiastically to the hierarchical supervision of Kardamylon of the Holy Metropolis of Chios, Psara and Oinousses.

The postcode of Kardamyla is 82300.
External link

Short description

Sources

Dim. Glyka, Mich. Rhythmic, Dim. Skamalou: Chios: Our special homeland, Chios 1975, pp. 74-76
Georgiou I. Zolotas: History of Chios, volume A ("Historical Topography and Genealogy"). Types of P.D. Sakellariou, Athens 1921, pp. 642-648.

See also: Chios (island)