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Tanagra (Greek: Τανάγρα) is a town and a municipality north of Athens in Boeotia, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Schimatari.[1] It is not far from Thebes, and it was noted in antiquity for the figurines named after it. The Tanagra figurines were a mass-produced, mold-cast and fired type of Greek terracotta figurines produced from the later fourth century BCE, primarily in Tanagra.

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Municipality

The municipality Tanagra was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 4 former municipalities, that became municipal units:[1]

Dervenochoria
Oinofyta
Schimatari
Tanagra

Ancient Tanagra

Pausanias mentions in Tanagra's location the ancient city of Graea, eponymous of the Graikoi, a Boeotian tribe whose name gave rise to the Latin Graecus "Greek". Homer, while reciting the Boeotian forces in the Iliad 's Catalogue of Ships, provides the first known reference to the Boeotian city of Graea.[2]

Tanagra's alternative name was Poimandria, after its founder Poimandros, who took part in the Trojan campaign. It was the site of two Battles of Tanagra, in 457 BC and 426 BC. The Boeotian League under Tanagra led forth "the Boeotians" against the Athenian invaders at Oenophyta, 62 days after the battle of Tanagra (See Battle of Oenophyta)

56 : Grave stele, Dermys and Kitylos. Boeotian poros. Found at Tanagra in Boeotia.

2061 : Vase in the form of a woman's head. From Tanagra

Woman holding a theatrical mask. Terracotta figurine made in Tanagra, ca. 325–300 BC, Louvre, Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities (MNB 555) [Source]

Inspired work of the figurines of Tanagra

Tanagra, 1890, Léon Gérôme

Modern Tanagra

Modern Tanagra can be accessed by GR-1 in the north and by a provincial road linking Thiva (Thebes) in the west. It is located SE of Thiva and Arma, SW of Schimatari and NW of Agios Thomas. The town is situated between the base and the highway. Tanagra is served by two interchanges, a partial southbound exit, a northbound entrance to the northwest and an almost-full to the east, serving access to highways 44 and 77 to the island of Euboea. Its service road lies to the south and is linked with the southeast bypass and to the military base. Farmlands surround the rest of Tanagra, and the Asopus River along with the Parnitha mountains to the south.

Today, Tanagra Air Force base is home to the 114 Combat Wing of the Hellenic Air Force, and is one of Greece's largest military bases. Its runway is about 2 km in length.

In the early 2000s, a military plane which was on a training flight crashed on the runway during bad weather. There were no survivors.

On Sunday September 18, 2005, the Archangelos air show, the largest ever organized in Greece, took place in Tanagra. It drew a crowd of more than 200,000.

Population
Year Settlement population Municipality population
1981 1,097 -
1991 847 -
2001 871 4,134