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Attica, Greece

Oropos (Greek: Ωρωπός) is a small town and a municipality in East Attica, Greece.

Geography

It is situated on the southern Euboean Gulf, opposite Eretria. Oropos is located N of Avlona and Athens, E of Thebes and SE of Chalcis. Oropos is linked with the road linking Nea Palatia and Sikamino. Oropos is also linked with the service road which links with the GR-1/E75 at its nearest interchanges. The area around Oropos supports farmlands with olive groves to the south and with some mountains to the south. South of the superhighway is the Parnitha mountain. Various businesses form the industry of Oropos, and agriculture dominates the farmlands.

Municipality

The present municipality Oropos was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 9 former municipalities, that became municipal units (constituent communities in brackets):[1]

Afidnes
Avlonas
Kalamos
Kapandriti
Malakasa
Markopoulo Oropou
Oropioi (Nea Palatia, Skala Oropou and Oropos)
Polydendri
Sykamino

Nearest places

Chalkoutsi, north
Skala Oropou, northeast
Milessi, east
Avlona, south
Oinofyta, west

History

Graphik9

Votive relief of Archinos (370 BC) from Tyrea, Argolis (Oropos / Amphiaraus), 0.49 m x 0.55 m. The healing god appears to the dreamer to cure him. Nationalmuseum Athens, No. 3369

Graphik10

Oropos, Amphiareion

The sanctuary for the oracle of Amphiaraus at Oropos is east of Delphi, northeast of Athens

Oropos was founded by colonists from Eretria; it was either located in or identical with Graea.[2] In ancient times, it was a border city between Boeotia and Attica, and its possession was a continual cause of dispute between the two states; but ultimately it came into possession of Athens, and was always an Attic town, even during the Roman Empire. The actual harbour, which was called Delphinium, was at the mouth of the Asopus, about a mile (1.6 km) north of the city.

The famous oracle of Amphiaraus was situated in the territory of Oropus, 12 stadia from the city. The site has been excavated by the Greek Archaeological Society;[3] it contained a temple, a sacred spring, into which coins were thrown by worshippers, altars and porticoes, and a small theatre, of which the proskenion is well preserved. Worshippers used to consult the oracle of Amphiaraus by sleeping on the skin of a slaughtered ram within the sacred building.

Plangon Stele

Plangon Stele: Text; Plangon Tolmidoy Plataiki. Tolmides Plataeus. "Plangon, wife of Tolmides, from Plataea. Tolmides, the Platean". Probably the stele of a wife who died soon a after becoming a mother. Discovered in Oropos.

Athens, Athens National Archaeological Museum; NM 749

Historical population
Year Town population Community population
1981 672 -
1991 784 924
2001 860 1,252

Other
the automobile museum "O Phaeton"

The town (pop. 860 in 2001) is the seat of government of the community, which also includes the villages of Kámpos Oropoú (pop. 237), and Platánia Oropoú (155). Oropos has a school and a lyceum or a middle school, a gymnasia or a high school, churches, a post office and a few squares (plateies).

See also

List of municipalities of Attica, Including communities

References

^ Kallikratis law Greece Ministry of Interior (Greek)
^ Robin Lane Fox, Travelling Heroes: In the Epic Age of Homer (Random House, 2008: ISBN 0679444319), p. 161.
^ A. Mazzarakis Ainian, "Oropos in the Early Iron Age", in M. Bats and d'Agostino, eds. Euboica: l'Eubea e la presenza euboica in Calcidia e in occidente 1998:197-215.

Municipalities of Athens