| AMFISSA |
 ΑMFISSA .
An enormous museum of cultural heritage…
Mythical Amfissa, the mistress of god Apollo, was the daughter of Makaros and the granddaughter of Aelos.
Ancient Amfissa exists since prehistoric times, as a prohellenic fortified housing area. With its organisational skills, it was one exemplary City State, with its own legislature, church council, with its own currency, development in the arts and trade and was the Metropolis of the Citrus Lokron.
Through excavations, many findings from all periods of time have been discovered such as buildings, statues, marble columns, inscribed columns, gold jewellery, silver and gold coins, diverse pottery, tombs, mosaics and infrastructure.BR>
While Pafsanias was on a tour at Delfous, he visited Amfissa, which he described as the biggest and most well known town the Lokrous. Amfissis and Andremonas tombs and Athenas temple in which was kept her statue of brass, loot of the Trojan War, he valued the they were not as old as the people of Amfissa…
Herodotus referred to the city as though it laid above the sacred ground of the Kresseo Field which was dedicated to Apollo and cultivation was not allowed.
The people of Amfissa took over that sacred land and cultivated it, the Amfictian Congress convicted them of sacrilege and fined them heavily even though the refused to pay it. Because of that the Amfictian Congress assigned King Fillip the 2nd of Macedonia, who during the 3rd sacred war captured Amfissa (338 BC) and totally destroyed the city, to impose sanctions against them.
After that, followed the Byzantium millennium.
. In 330 AD Konstantin the Great transfers many works of art from the area of Delfous, including the golden tripod of Pethia, in order to decorate areas of the capital of the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople (Istanbul).
In 384 BC Emperor Theodosius the 1st prohibits the operation of the Museum of Delphi and in the wider area Christianity makes its appearance.
In 527 AD Emperor Ioustinianos the Great built the castle of Amfissa.
In 1110 AD west Amfissa, the Holy Church of the Transfiguration was erected.A masterpiece of Byzantine Monument.
Then followed the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, beginning of the 13th century, Amfissa was renamed Salona. It was captured by the Franks who established the "Barony of Salona” and in 1224 they built the Frank church and castle’s walls exactly above the ancient city’s walls.
For the name Salona there many versions exist. One version is that it derived from the word Salonika (from Thessaloniki) and was given by the Frank king of Thessaloniki Boniface of Montferrat, who had conquered the city. Another version is that it derived from the agricultural term of es alona which means within the threshing. One more version is that the city takes its name from the Dalmatians of Salona in memory of their homeland.
During the 14th century (1310) the Barony of the Salons was conquered by the Catalans.
This was followed by the years of Ottoman rule.
. Salona still remain the national and patriotic centre.
The first revolution against the Turks took place in 1460, seven years after the fall of Constantinople, with a painful ending.
In Salona, during the final period of the Ottoman rule, lived 700 Greek families and 500 Turkish, the majority of who mainly spoke the Greek language as their mother tongue.
The Ottomans, indolent and inactive, lived off the income brought about by rural labor slaves.
Salona contributed greatly to the Greek revolution of 1821with the emergence of fighters like Solonon Isaiah, Athanasius Diakos, Odysseus Androutsos, Panourgias, Giannis Gouras, Giannis Makrigiannis, Diovouniotis, Trakas, Gouras, Mitropoulos and more.
From Salona was given the signal of the uprising of Roumeli on the 25th of March 1821.
On the 27th of March the city was liberated and on the 10th of April, on Easter day, the castle of Oria, was the first castle which was freed in the whole of Greece.
After the liberation, Salona became the capital city of Eastern Terrestrial Greece following the establishment of the Supreme Court of Salona, which passed the Constitution of East Terrestrial Greece, at the building which now houses the Archaeological Museum of Amfissa.
In the year 1833, the city was renamed Amfissa..
When the whole of Greece was facing poverty, in Amfissa the production of industrial goods (leather, nitro, gunpowder) and agriculture (olives, wheat, barley, cotton, oil) led the development of the export trade and brought great revenues. Particularly in the early 19th century, there was rapid economic and social growth, such as the olive trade and rising craft industries which became the contributing factor to the local economy. Generally the craft and traditional industries were growing more and more.
Now Amfissa being identified with the blessed olive and its famous olive groves went through a period of prosperity. As a result, prominent residents of the area, with great financial strength were willing to devote part or all of their large wealth to Amfissa and its residents, founding Endowments and specifying the purposes for which they afforded their assets and incomes which derived from those.
The example of the Great Benefactors and Donors of the city of Amfissa was also followed by many other residents, having upgraded Amfissa to the second city of Greece by number of benefactors and donors, but also because of the existence of valuable assets. Great Greeks from Amfissa were Markides, Giagtzis, Kordonis, Stallos, Coniakos, Zisimos, Maheras and many others.
Today Amfissa doesn’t differ from the average provincial town, experiencing approximately the same conditions of quality of life.
Amfissa is the capital of the county of Phocis and the City of Delphi and it is the center of all Public Services of the county.
Its population is approximately 10,000 inhabitants.
Amfissa features:
A General Hospital,a Court,a Magistrates Court , a Cathedral, a Police Department , Traffic Police , Fire Service ,an OTE phone department , an Electricity department,a community college ( Department of Marketing and Tourism Department ),a Center for Environmental Education,an IEK community college,a Vocational High School,a Lyceum,a Gymnasium,a Music High School,an Evening High School,Primary Schools,Kindergartens,nurseries,Special Schools,a Second Chance School,a School of Nursing,services for primary and secondary education,an Archaeological Museum,a Folklore Museum,the remarkable traditional Settlement of TAMPAKI ( Charmaina ), Remarkable Monuments,a Cultural Center,a Public Library of 55,000 volumes,a Choir,a Municipal Philharmonic Band,a Theatre Workshop,a Visual Studio,Cultural and sports clubs,a youth center,Structures of Social Psychiatry and Mental Health,Nursing home,Help at Home,the club KAPI for the elderly , Preventorium for prisoners,a rich market,craft shops and entertainment and one hotel,the Hotel Amfissaeum. |
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