Photos

Hello Friends,

Seems it is not possible to leave Santorini;)
Today another town of it - Pyrgos and a kind of typical Greek backyard. Hope you like it;)

Cheers!

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Pyrgos
High on the hill overlooking Athinios, the main port of the island, this wonderful village is a reminder of how the island was before tourism was developed. It is one of the oldest settlements on the island, and the simple, quiet, and traditional village has lovely views, pretty houses, small lanes, churches, and the ruins of a Venetian castle.

Pyrgos is the capital of the Prefecture of Ilia and its largest city. It is a relatively new city, since its foundation took place during the occupation of Greece by the Turks, and is built on seven small hills. It is 4 kilometers away from the sea, 19 kilometers from Ancient Olympia, and 315 kilometers from the Greek capital, Athens. Its main landmarks are the two exquisite neoclassical buildings designed by Schiller, the Municipal Market and the Apollo Municipal Theater, plus the central square with the Eparcheion. Today it is inhabited by about 45,000 people.

At the place where the city is built today, archaeologists located the Ancient city of Dyspontion, and, at the city's suburbs, the Ancient city of Letrina. From this ancient city came the official name of Pyrgos, changed in the 1980's from Letrina. The city owes its name to a tower (in Greek 'Pyrgos'), located at the Eparcheion, built by Ioannis Tsernotas in the years 1512-1520 A.D. This tower existed in its place until June 1825, when the citizens, after the Sunday church preaching, pulled it down, blinded by civil fights...

Legend has it that in 1512, Ioannis Tsernotas found in a well, near Neochori of Pyrgos, many ancient coins. He traveled to Constantinople, where he offered them to Sultan Selim, taking the privilege to be named Bei and the ownership of a great area of land around Pyrgos. Tsernota's well existed until the mid 70's, when it was covered over due to "progress."

The city's growth was very fast. It is mentioned for the first time, by the name of Pyrgos, in 1687, when, for an interval of 25 years, Venice dominated the western Peloponnese. Its population, at that time about 5,000, consisted almost exclusively of Greeks. Pyrgos took an important role in the Greek revolution of 1821. The revolution here started on the 29th of March 1821, by Charalampos Villaetis, and many residents offered themselves to the Cause.

After the liberation of Greece, Pyrgos became one of the important cities of Greece. The rate of growth was very fast, and, in 1870, the population was 9,000 (at a time when Athens had 45,000 inhabitants).

An important role contributing to its growth was the production and commerce of raisins. The railroad that connected Pyrgos with the city's harbor, Katakolo, (with a length of 13 kilometers) is the second railroad constructed in Greece and the first outside Athens. At that time, there were constructed many neoclassical buildings and houses in the city, like the Municipal Theater and the Municipal Market. Unfortunately, today, many of the old neoclassical houses have been replaced by apartment buildings.

The city's growth stopped for many years, as the commerce of raisins became non-profitable. In the last years, there has been a considerable rate of growth due to the improvement of agricultural production, while, after the earthquakes that destroyed many city buildings in 1993, there is intense building activity going on once again.

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