Portianou, Limnos

Portiano or Portianou is a village of Lemnos. Administratively it belongs to the Municipality of Lemnos of the North Aegean Region (Kallikratis program).

From 1999 to 2010, according to the then administrative division of Greece, it was the seat of the homonymous municipal district of the Municipality of Nea Koutali. It used to belong to the prefecture of Lesvos.

According to the 2001 census, it has 306 inhabitants.

Name

Initially, the village was located further west in the place of Agios Spyridon, where there are remains of the old cemetery and traces of buildings. According to old testimonies, which cannot be crossed, about three centuries ago an epidemic forced the population to move to the current location. However, the name of the village does not refer to any monastic document of the Byzantine era, as is the case with most of the villages of Lemnos. It was first mentioned in 1785 on the map of Choiseul-Gouffier under the name Portiano, which leads us to the conclusion that it was indeed created three centuries ago.

Among the later travelers: Conze (1858), De Launay (1898) and Fredrich (1904) the place name is marked as male: Portianos (o). In the Community documents it is written in the general: "Portianou". Finally, in 1918 the name of the village was recorded as neutral: Portiano (the).

The place name is Latin and seems to come from the words: "porto juno: new port", from a port that existed southeast of the old village, in the place of Melangas (= black land). There are the ruins of the small tower (vigla) that supervised the port, which was probably built during the short-lived Venetian occupation of the island in 1656-57. Until 1940 it was saved at a height of six to seven meters but was almost destroyed during the occupation.

Ottoman period

We know from the community records that in 1854 the village had a priest named Margaritis. In 1856 it had 147 conscripts, who paid 2,070 groschen to avoid enlistment. In 1863, 71 families were registered, which had become 80 in 1874, proof of a clear population growth. Also, in 1874 there were 97 houses. In the same year, it is reported that he belonged to the City Hall. The Portians sent two representatives to the Pallimni provincial assembly.

At the end of the 19th century, the community had issued coins for small transactions with the X P stamp (Portion Village), while in 1912 there was a post office in the village with its own stamp. The village was a stopover in the passage of the gulf of Moudros, for those who wanted to go from the east to the west side of the island and vice versa, because the passage through the bridge of Varos was not always possible, as the torrent of the Diocese flooded in winter. . There were close economic and social contacts with Moudros, as many traders had shops on both sides of the bay. Maritime activity is also reported. The shipowner Podaras is known around 1875.

The Church

In 1835, during the years of the metropolitan of Nektarios, as noted in a relevant inscription, the central church of the village was built, dedicated to the Entrances of the Virgin Mary. In 1858, Conze admired the colors of the church, in which a marble sarcophagus was preserved. A newer inscription, from 1875, and another in which PANTELIS ZANIS is listed as the master builder, concerns some important renovation. It is the same temple building that built the temples of Atsiki (1868), Platy and Varos. The decorator was Angelos Binetas from Sarpi.

The church, three-aisled basilica, is impressive and dominates the village as it is built on a small hill. It has an ornate carved iconostasis, gilded and hagiographies by Gr. Papamalis. The columns of the exonarthex are marble and come from an older building. Finally, the bell tower is later.

Schools

The school of the village operated in 1870 and was called Christodoulidion Arrenagogion, in honor of the founders and benefactors Kyriakou († 1884) and Maria Christodoulou, wealthy expatriates of Cairo, who were among the pioneers in the construction of the Lyric Museum in the building of the Metropolitan Church. . About 80 students attended the school and in 1874 it became a community. It was originally three-story, in 1909 it became four-story and in 1912 five-story.

In 1905, a separate girls' school was founded called Fergadiotio, in honor of the founder Athanasios Fergadiotis, a native of Smyrna.

In 1920 the two schools merged into a six-grade mixed primary school, which was housed in a new impressive dormitory in 1931. It operated initially as a three-seater, later a two-seater and a single-seater from 1963. It closed in the late 1980s. The school's donors are also the Vassilios and Penelope Tseliou, Georgios and Myrsini Konstantinou and Antonios Velissaridis.

Among others, the teachers taught at the Portianou School: Christos Kontellis (1916-22, 1923-44), Emmanouil Ioannidis (1922-23, 1928-37), Evangelia Mavroudi (1948-63), Vaios Rigopoulos (1955-63), Ignatios Papadopoulos (circa 1966-76) etc.
Newer period

From April 1915 to 1920, hundreds of soldiers killed in the Gallipoli campaign were buried in the "Allied Cemetery of Portiano", which is still preserved today. There are 352 tombs of British, French, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, Egyptians and Indians. During this time in Portiano, his campaign was set up by campaign inspirer Winston Churchill, whose armchair is on display at the Folklore Museum.

In 1918-21, hundreds of Russian emigrants and soldiers were hosted in the area between Portiano and Tsimandria. They sold their belongings to survive, lived in miserable conditions, and eventually 292 people died of the epidemic in 1920-21. They are buried in the so-called Russian cemetery near the shore.

In 1918 Portiano became a community, which included: in 1918-19, for a few months, Pesperago and in the period 1919-28 the Agariones. During the interwar years in the village, it experienced significant growth. Its population increased from 617 inhabitants in 1920, in 1938 it had 750 inhabitants and 250 houses. Among other things, the action of the football club Triumph, which gave two games in 1931, with Livadochori and Aris Moudrou, is mentioned.

After the war, the village's population declined rapidly due to migration. Thus, out of 564 people in 1951, today it has about 300 inhabitants. Despite the population shrinkage, there is a regional clinic and a cultural association. In 1995, a Folklore Museum was established with costumes, old tools, household utensils, furniture, photographs, etc., at the initiative of the Athens-Piraeus Portians Association, which for a while published the newspaper Ta Nea tou Portianou.
Personalities

In addition to agricultural and commercial activities, the inhabitants of Portiano developed a strong spiritual and artistic tradition that continues to this day.

Stone and marble craftsmen: Xenophon Keramidas, Konstantinos, Paris and Dimitris Bogdanos, Panagiotis Fergadiotis and others.
Hagiographers-painters: Grigorios, Manos and Stratonikos Papamalis, Giannis Papaioannou (Pagonis), Andreas Kontellis and others.
Teachers and writers: Despina Vogdanou-Konstantiou, who also served as Mayor of Myrina and Costas Kontellis, who wrote the excellent monograph "The Portian of Lemnos", which contains abundant information and rich photographic material on the history of the village during the 20th century.

Sights

Folklore Museum.
Allied cemetery.
Church of the Assumption.
Primary school.
Mansion buildings.

Bibliography

Costa Kontelli, The Portian of Lemnos, 1998.
Th. Belitsou, Lemnos and its villages, 1994.
Tourptsoglou-Stefanidou Vassiliki, "Travel and geographical texts for the island of Lemnos (15th-20th century)", Thessaloniki 1986.
Cdrom District of Lemnos: "Lemnos Beloved".
"LIMNOS: Historical & Cultural Heritage", published by G. Konstantellis, 2010.

See also: Limnos, island

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