Mitropoli, Karditsa

Mitropoli (Μητρόπολις) Karditsa

Mitropoli is a village in the Municipality of Karditsa, in the Prefecture of Karditsa, with 1,262 inhabitants, according to the 2011 census, and an area of ​​11,173 acres. Its old name is Paliokastro.

The visitor who will go from Karditsa to Lake Plastira will pass the Mitropoli, which is only 8 km away from Karditsa. It is known that in the place of today's homonymous village in antiquity there was "the City of the Metropolitans" and it dates back to about 500 BC. The settlement of the Mitropoli has been officially declared an archeological site since 1964, by Ministerial Decision. In particular, two Roman baths have been found - one of which features a mosaic depicting the capture of Europe by Dia -, residential relics from the classical and Roman periods, a ceramic kiln and more. The Mitropoli has been a center of pottery since antiquity, as evidenced by the many ceramic kilns found inside the ancient settlement. One of these kilns, which was discovered by the 3rd EPKA, has been transferred to the main square of the settlement and its promotion works are continuing.

Sights

The church of Agios Georgios, which is located near the main square, next to the new Temple, and has been characterized as historically preserved.

His iconostasis is a masterpiece of art. Under the floor of the Temple there is a portico, which tradition says leads outside the settlement to the place "Lianokokkala", where the Ancient Temple of Apollo has recently been discovered. Scattered houses, in the streets of the village that still retain the architectural features of the place (brick buildings or stone buildings built of river stone, with wooden bindings, wooden loggias and in some places painted with the characteristic intense indigo). Cool moments in the summer can be found in the Municipal Refreshment Building which is built on its shore.
Theater

Mitropoli has an open-air theater of 1200 seats where every summer hosts troupes from all over Greece with remarkable performances and music concerts where spectators from all over the Prefecture gather.

Customs - traditions - festivals

The festival on the eve of the Holy Spirit (approximately when the tobacco planting is over) with folk music and oatmeal offered to visitors, in the Chapel of Agios Nikolaos. This is a very beautiful area with tall oaks.

Motocross Mitropoli

In Mitropoli there is a Motocross Track, where Panhellenic Championship matches are held, with participations from Greece and from Balkan countries.
A.O. Doxa Mitropolis

The A.O. Doxa Mitropolis was founded in 1952 and has been playing continuously since 1973 in the championships of EPS Karditsa and the 4th National.

Archaeological sites

The Municipality of Mitropoli holds an extremely interesting position in the classification of the archeological sites of the Prefecture. (houses, public buildings, mosaics, streets, ceramic kilns, part of the wall and cemetery of the ancient city.)

Mycenaean vaulted tomb of Agricultural - Xinoneeri

It is located about one kilometer southeast of the ancient Mitropoli. It is the best preserved vaulted tomb in all of Thessaly, as its dome is intact. It is one of the largest vaulted tombs with a diameter of 8.80 m and a height of 8.95 m. The work of highlighting the tomb continues. At present it is not a place to visit.
Archaic temple of Apollo

Important is the recent discovery of the archaic temple of Apollo on the banks of the river Lapardas (about 2 km west of the ancient city of the Mitropoli, in the place Lianokokala) whose excavation was carried out by Mr. H. Intzesiloglou. It is a unique monument in Thessaly, which gives important information to archaeologists about the Worship of Apollo. It is a monumental pavilion temple, which was built in the middle of the 6th century BC, and is of particular interest since its architectural elements and embossed decoration do not follow the normal Doric style. The building has five columns on its narrow sides and eleven on the long ones, while the weight of the roof supported an internal wooden colonnade along the nave. The pillars of the wings and the uprights of the nave were made of stone. Higher the walls of the nave were built of raw bricks, while wood was, in addition to the inner colonnade, the dome above the stone outer columns and the skeleton of the gabled roof, which created gables on the narrow sides of the temple. The tiles were clay, Corinthian type and ended in the long triangular acrokerama with embossed floral decoration. Simi existed only on the gables. The fronts of the simi, the cornices and the top tiles brought written decoration with geometric patterns. Of the capes on the roof, only one clay horse bust was preserved, which was the central cape of the eastern pediment. A special feature of the architecture of the temple is the embossed decoration of the echinoderm of the capitals with floral ornaments, the design of which differs from capital to capital. The fall of the roof tiles inside the temple protected and preserved the objects that were not burned by the fire of the 2nd century BC. which destroyed the temple. Thus was found a bronze statue of Apollo, depicted in the form of a hoplite, which, although only 80 cm high, is one of the largest bronze statues of its time. (The church is open to the public, after consultation with LDPS EPKA - geographically the church belongs to the Mitropoli, but according to the new Kapodistrian municipalities, the area belongs administratively to Moschato of the Municipality of Plastira.)
Roman Baths (within the settlement of Mitropoli)

Roman bath on the modern Alex Street. Papagou. On the floor of the bath, mosaics were discovered, which, in addition to geometric patterns, have a painting with mythological representations. One representation depicts the abduction of Europe by the bull-transformed Zeus, while the other depicts the scene of Eleni's persuasion by Aphrodite. These are rare mosaics, due to their theme, but also their excellent technique, and for these reasons, especially the seizure of Europe, is ranked among the best mosaics of antiquity that have been found so far in Thessaly. Roman bath on the modern Ag. Seraphim. A mosaic floor was revealed, with geometric patterns and traces of a painting. The site-hill "Vibirotripa" in Portitsa has been characterized as an archeological site, as well as the hill of Profitis Ilias in Frangos. (The data for the archeological findings come from the researches and the reports of the ΙΓ΄ and ΛΔ΄ ΕΠΚΑ)

Metropolis

The ancient metropolis was located at the foot of Agrafa, in the place of today's homonymous town that used to be called "Paliokastro", 9.00 km west of Karditsa. We owe the identification of the ancient city to the inscription "VERY MHTPOPOLITON" located on a stone in the corner of an old two-storey house in the modern Metropolis. The ancient Metropolis was a city created at the beginning of the 4th century. BC, according to ancient philological and other sources, from the settlement of three small and infamous settlements in the area. In the following years some small neighboring cities, such as Onthyrion and Polichnes, settled with the Metropolis. In places close to today's Metropolis, such as between Portitsa and Agios Georgios, in the place "Papadimeika" and in the place "Paleokastro" Morfovouni, there are several archeological elements, ie parts of ancient fortifications, architectural relics and pottery, which may be from cities mentioned in the settlement of Metropolis. Also, during the 2nd c. BC Another ancient city, Ithomi, which we place in the archeological site located in the village of Pyrgos Ithomis, was settled with the Metropolis according to an inscription. The metropolis was one of the three most important and strong walled ancient cities on the outskirts of the prefecture of Karditsa (the other two were Kierion and Gomfoi). The first testimony about the city is made in an inscription from Delphi that dates back to around 360 BC. and is a terminus ante quem, according to which the Metropolitans participated in the financing for the reconstruction of the temple of Apollo at Delphi with the important for the time amount of one hundred and twenty ancient drachmas. It seems that the city had the greatest development during the Hellenistic and Roman eras. According to Strabo (late 1st century BC - early 1st century AD) it was included in the administrative division of the quartet Estiaiotida, and together with the ancient cities of Trikki, Pelinna and Gomfous it formed a quadrilateral.

The city actively participated in the Community of Thessaly. The power it acquired at the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd c. BC contributed so that several times citizens of the Mitropoli were elected to the post of General of the Common of Thessaly (Aiakidis of Kallio in 194 and 191 BC, Proteas of Monim in 170 BC, Leo of Pausani in 135 BC). Petraeus of Philoxenides in 129 and 126 BC). The prestige of the city and its citizens is also shown by the fact that some of them were honored by other cities with "consulate" and "equality" (Nikomachos was honored by the Lamians, late 3rd century BC, Sosistratos by city ​​of Gonnos) or were invited as judges to try a case again in Gonnos (Nicosia War with Antigonus Damonos as secretary, 2nd century BC).

From the ancient literary tradition we are informed that in 198 BC. The Metropolitans, although out of town in their fields, gathered and repulsed the Aetolians, while during the Roman Civil War between Pompey and Julius Caesar, in 48 BC, the latter captured the Metropolis. but he did not destroy it, as he did with the Gomfos. In the 6th c. AD We are informed by Prokopios in his work "On Buildings" that Justinian repaired the city walls and by Hierocles in the "Co-Chair of Cities and Provinces" that the Mitropoli was included in the list of cities in the province of Thessaly.

From Strabo (late 1st century BC - early 1st century AD) we learn that the Metropolitans worshiped Aphrodite as one of their main public deities. In fact, her worship included the unusual custom of sacrificing pigs, a custom they received from the neighboring town of Onthyrion when it was settled in the Mitropoli. According to the descriptions, in the center of the city there was also a sanctuary of Aphrodite. In a relief from the metropolis described by W. Leake, an English traveler of the early 19th century, the goddess Aphrodite is depicted sitting on a throne holding a scepter, while men are standing in front of her at the root of a hill, one of which holds a pig for a throne. Excavations of coins, inscriptions and representations of coins show the worship of Zeus, Dionysus and Apollo. Excavations at land in modern-day Metropolis to build buildings included, among other things, a section of a votive column with the inscription ΔII OMOLOIOII, on the other hand a clay head of Dionysus. Also, from the temple that was discovered in the place "Lianokokkala" of the wider area of ​​Mitropolis, come a bronze cult statue of the hoplite Apollo and a votive inscription to the god Apollo.

The first monetary period of the city dates back to the beginning of the 4th c. BC, when the oldest silver coin in the city is dated. In the 3rd c. BC, the silver and copper coinage of the Metropolis continues. The silver coins depict various representations, such as a bearded head (river Deity), the god Dionysus standing or the goddess Aphrodite sitting on a rock, the head of Aphrodite and to the right of Niki or Apollo playing the lyre. In the coins of the 3rd c. BC depicts either Aphrodite Kastniitis standing with Love or the head of Aphrodite with a flying dove or the head of Apollo or the front part of a bull rendered with a human head. The coins of the city on their backs, along with the representations, also bear inscriptions, such as MHTPOPOLITON, MHTPOPOLEITON or MHTPO.

Apart from the old finds of the early 20th century, which were transferred to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens (known as the so-called treasure of "Paleokastro", ie the Metropolis), during the rescue excavations in recent decades - both on plots private individuals for the construction of buildings as well as in the context of public works, such as e.g. the construction of roads and the renewal of the water supply network - many archeological data have been revealed from the ancient Metropolis.

Parts of the defensive fortification of the Metropolis of classical times have been excavated on plots in the west and in fields to the east of the modern town. Unfortunately, large parts of the wall were destroyed both at the beginning of the last century due to the construction activity and in the 1970s during the execution of the land reclamation project. In some places, however, parts of the direction and superstructure of the towers and towers were revealed, which were made of squared large boulders made of sandstone, while inside there was a filling. The wall was well-built, with an average thickness of 3.50 m. In the past, one could follow its course in the area, which was circular, a large sixteen-sided one, each side of which was about 160.00 m long. the stream of Lapardas, while in the NW it rested on the roots of the adjacent hills. On a plot of land (Steriadi Petsa) in the town was cleaned a part of a large construction of late Roman times that is believed to be part of the fortification of this period. Along with the many architectural remains of private and public ancient buildings and the sections of streets that reveal an organized urban fabric, clay pipes have been discovered that are part of the ancient city's water supply network and several mosaic floors, such as the abduction of Europe or others. issues. The pottery workshops with their kilns, found in various parts of the Metropolitan area, confirm the craft activities of the Metropolitans.

Apart from the large Mycenaean vaulted tomb of Georgikos, in the wider area of ​​ancient Mitropolis there are several burial monuments, such as the tomb at "Kapriani" in the north of Karditsa - Mitropolis road. In the past, some mounds have also been excavated, such as one in the area of ​​the village of Frango. Several tombs of the organized cemeteries of the ancient city were also searched both in and around the settlement and in the countryside, as in the southwest of the ancient city, in the place "Malamata" etc. The ancient tombs were either box-shaped, made with slabs, stones or tiles whether they were carnivorous, clay or sandstone. For the most part, the custom of burying the dead prevailed. The objects - the gifts - that were usually placed in the tombs as offerings were vessels (clay, metal, glass), jewelry, weapons, coins and more. The tombstones were placed as signs above the burials, several of which bore inscriptions and have been found in various places.

From the surviving inscriptions we derive several pieces of information on various subjects, such as the worship customs or the organization of the citizens of the Metropolis. From an inscription we are informed that the Metropolitans, dividing into tribes, among which the tribe of Onthyrians from the city of Onthyrion, which participated in the settlement of the Metropolis, is mentioned. Enough items, such as inscriptions, vases, jewelry, coins, etc. have been handed over to the Archaeological Service by individuals. Most of them are kept in the Archaeological Museum of Volos, but in recent years they have been transferred to the new Archaeological Museum of Karditsa. Book: "Journey to the Monuments of the Prefecture of Karditsa"

Source: Prefecture of Karditsa

History

The ancient Mitropoli was an important city of Estiaiotida and was located at the foot of Agrafa, in the place of today's homonymous town with the older name "Paliokastro", 9 km west of Karditsa.

We owe its identification to the inscription "MANY METROPOLITANS", on a cornerstone of an old house. It was created at the beginning of the 4th c. e.g. from the settlement of three small settlements in the area. It experienced the greatest development during the Hellenistic and Roman eras. The city minted coins in the early 4th century. BC In the 3rd c. e.g. silver and copper coinage continues. The coins of the city on their backs, along with the representations, also bear inscriptions, such as METRO, METROPOLITAN or METROPOLITAN.

Archeological findings

During archeological excavations, many archeological finds have been unearthed in recent decades. Parts of its defensive fortifications of classical times have been excavated in plots and fields of the modern town.

On a plateau about 2 km west of the modern settlement of the Mitropoli is the archaic temple of Apollo at the site "Lianokokkala". The excavations brought to light a hundred-foot-tall, pavilion, Doric temple with an internal colonnade and dimensions of 31.00 X 13.75 m. The temple had five (5) Doric-style columns on the narrow sides and eleven (11) on the long ones. It was dedicated to the god Apollo, according to an inscribed votive column found inside the nave. It is dated shortly before the middle of the 6th century BC, while it was destroyed by fire in the 2nd c. e.g.

Also, an important monument of the prefecture of Karditsa, the Mycenaean vaulted tomb of the Agricultural, is located in the country of the ancient Mitropoli.

External links

https://web.archive.org/web/20110615024605/http://paliokastro.blogspot.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20110430155600/http://doxamitropolis.blogspot.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20110728062625/http://mxparkmetropolis.blogspot.com/
in.gr
The ancient cities of western Thessaly
https://web.archive.org/web/20190308192206/https://karditsas.blogspot.com/

Municipal unit Mitropoli
Community Agios Georgios
Agios Georgios (Άγιος Γεώργιος, ο)
Community Georgiko
Georgiko (Γεωργικόν, το)
Community Krya Vrysi
Krya Vrysi (Κρύα Βρύση, η)
Community Mitropoli
Mitropoli (Μητρόπολις, η)
Community Xinoneri
Xinoneri (Ξινονέριον, το)
Community Portitsa
Panorama (Πανόραμα, το)
Portitsa (Πορτίτσα, η)
Community Fragko
Fragko (Φράγκον, το)

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