Louros, Preveza

Louros (Λούρος) Preveza

ΟLouros is a town in the prefecture of Preveza. It is located at the beginning of the Lamaris valley, right in the middle of the Arta - Preveza route, in the middle of the prefecture of Preveza, at the point where the mountains of Valaora and Zalongo tend to join in hills with an altitude of 30m. This valley is located near the mouth of the river Louros.

Name

It seems that Louros was originally called Pyrgos and was located south, near the river (Louros river). During the 16th century it took the name Louros, transforming the name of the river Orouros, as reported by the Metropolitan of Arta Seraphim Xenopoulos.
History

The first mention of the name Louros is made in the middle of the 17th century (1670), when Evliya Çelebi, a Turkish traveler, passes through the area, and mentions Louros for the first time as a village, but also as a tsifliki (Turkish.ciff-lik). : farm) of a bey (Turkish: bey: honorary title of the Turks, leader, ruler) who managed it by kehagias (Turkish: kahya .: economist, administrator, commissioner). He also states that there were mills and a deserted fortress.

Cry my Cuckoo cry on the ridge of the Cauldron
Cry in the sea, where the ships are sailing
River my, get lesser, river my, turn back
Ask about Nikolo, Nikolos Tsouvaras
He was a gunman in Louros, a thief in Karpenisi
Yesterday thunderous rifles were heard loud and clear
He fought with his whole company in Louros
The Turkish troops are near dawn
They beat the captain, Captain Tzovaras
And the crowd scattered
- Folk song about the death of Captain Nikolos Nastos-Tziovaras

From then until the middle of the 18th century, the references to Louros are minimal. It is mainly from documents of foreign consuls of Arta and Preveza for the logging of the forests of the area. At that time, the area of ​​Lammari is mentioned, with fifteen villages between Riniassa and Amvrakikos, as a region of Louros that was under the jurisdiction of a Muslim mosque in Ioannina. Captain Nicholas Nastos-Tziovaras is later mentioned as a famous leader of Louros and Lamaris, who was assassinated by Margaritas Tsamides in 1770 on the orders of the Turks.

In 1779, Cosmas the Aetolian appeared in the area, who managed to establish a School (Greek school) in Louros, with additional financial support (50 grosis) from the then Kechagia of Louros Osman Aga, because "this motivates the Greeks to behave lawfully and to pay the fees to their feudal lords ". And for this reason, the Turkish Turks provided him with protection throughout the territory of Louros. According to the historian Zission (New Ephemeris, August 23, 1896), he wrote: "how he infiltrated the Armatolians or had their Armatolikia in Louros or Xiromero in the revolutionary plans of the Russian court for the revolt of the Orthodox against the Gate." Rigas Feraios, Velestinlis, in 1795, in the famous "Map" notes Louros as a Castle and transit center of the area.

Under Ali Pasha

In 1797, Ali Pasha took control of Louros and set it on fire together with the neighboring villages (Kamarina, Kantza). He forced the residents to work for him. Pasha occasionally brought others from various villages of Epirus to cultivate the fertile fields of the area and sold the products produced mainly to his French allies. The death of the inhabitants came from the hardships and an epidemic disease called shortness of breath. Louros was a poor village, the capital of the Louros and Lamaris area as it was commonly called, and the seat of Pasha.

In the summer of 1800, Alis, with 3,000 men based in Louros, tried unsuccessfully to capture Souli. Realizing the importance of the village but also of the floating part of the Louros river, he built a charcoal mill next to the river in the area. The mill operated until its liberation in 1912. Even next to the mill, it built a large stone building that served as a warehouse and customs office, to transport local products (flour, hair, acorns, animals) by ship to the Amvrakikos gulf - Preveza port, to European or domestic markets. He also burned down the fortress built by Kurt Pasha in Louros, and built a new new command post, mosque, residence of his commander, and a short distance south of Hani.

Revolution and liberation

On April 21, 1821, the guardian of Riniassi, Christoforos Piraeus, organized a meeting of the Souliotes and their allies in Louros, in order to draw up a plan for the conquest of the city of Preveza and for the Greek actions of the Greeks against the Turks. Louros was set on fire by the Turks on November 31, 1821 in retaliation for the uprising of its inhabitants. Residents are starting to leave the village and settle in a new location north of it, around the headquarters - Sarai, built by Ali Pasha, which is the main settlement and today's village.

In 1854, Louros was set on fire again by the Turks in retaliation for the revolt of its inhabitants during the "Christian revolution" of Epirus. Many of its residents are abandoning it permanently, with the result that its population is declining excessively. From 1873 onwards, new residents gradually began to settle from the surrounding villages, mainly from all over Epirus. With the invasion of the Greek army for the liberation of Epirus, Louros was liberated by the Turkish yoke of 400 years, on Tuesday, October 16, 1912, 8 in the morning. In the last century or so of the Turkish occupation, Louros was the capital of the Nahiyye (Municipality) of Louros and Lamaris, one of the four of Preveza.

Contemporary history

In the eighties and since the integration of the village in Greece until today, some important events have taken place:

On June 13, 1926, Sunday at dawn, the National Bank's money transfer robbery took place, with the huge amount for that time of 15 million, in the straits of Petra by the Retzai brothers.
In 1969, the plain with land improvement projects (low belt of Lamaris) was handed over and its managing body is the TOEB. LAMARIS while in 2001, after four years of work, the water supply of the plain of the lower low zone of Lamari, with pressure, and at the same time there is a reforestation in this part of it.

From the 50's, the development of the village in the agricultural and livestock sector began slowly. It has a Nursery School, a Kindergarten, a 12-seat Primary School, a Gymnasium and a Lyceum, a Philharmonic. According to the official censuses of the Greek state, it has 1,203 (1951), 1,537 (1971), 1,744 (1981), 2,152 (1991), 2,078 (2001) inhabitants. Louros is the seat of the Kapodistrian Municipality of Louros consisting of Louros and the D.D. Oropou, Stefanis, Sfinotou, Kotsanopoulou, Vrysoula, Reumatia, Skiada, Ano Rachis and Trikastro. The last area is the northernmost tip of the municipality, where the river Acheron divides the Municipality of Louros from Souli in Thesprotia, creating the "Gates of Hades".

In Louros there are olive groves, orchards, the plain, part of the ancient aqueduct of Nikopolis, ruins of a small Hellenistic tower and the only aesthetic riparian forest - a recreation area of ​​St. Barnabas with its church built in 1149. The beaches of the Ionian are only 12 km .

External links

Municipality of Louros.

Municipal unit Louros
Municipal Community Louros
Louros (Λούρος, ο)
Community Ano Rachi
Ano Rachi ( Άνω Ράχη, η)
Community Vrysoula
Vrysoula (Βρυσούλα, η)
Community Kotsanopoulo
Ano Kotsanopoulo (Άνω Κοτσανόπουλο, το)
Kato Kotsanopoulo (Κάτω Κοτσανόπουλο, το)
Community Neo Sfinoto
Νέο Σφηνωτό, το
Community Revmatia
Κάτω Ρευματιά, η
Revmatia (Ρευματιά, η)
Community Skiadas
Αλώνι, το
Kontates (Κοντάτες, οι)
Skiadas (Σκιαδάς, ο)
Community Stefani
Stefani (Στεφάνη, η)
Community Trikastro
Trikastro (Τρίκαστρο, το)
Community Oropos
Neos Oropos (Νέος Ωρωπός, ο)

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