Listed 2 sub titles with search on: History for wider area of: "STYRA Village EVIA" .
STYRA (Village) EVIA
Styra, the headquarters of the Municipality with the same name, is
an old town, in contrast with the coastal and touristic Nea
Styra. As its name suggests, Nea Styra is a relatively new and rapidly developing
settlement.
The first written reference to Styra is found in the "Iliad" of Homer,
in the catalogue of ships, wherein its participation, along with that of other
Evian cities, in the campaign against Troy under the command of Elafinoras is
recorded. The ancient Greek historiographers, especially Herodotus, classified
the population of Styra as part of the pre-Hellenic Indo-European tribe of the
Dryopes. According to the lexicographer Stephanos of Byzantium, Dryopes settled
initially around Iti and Parnassos.
After the arrival of the Dorians they were forced to move towards the Peloponnese
and Evia, occupying the area
of Dystos, Styra
and Karystia. In contrast
with this view, the ancient geographer Strabon attributed the foundation of Styra
to colonists from the Athenian deme
of Marathon.
This text is cited May 2003 from the Municipality
of Styra tourist pamphlet.
The dominant theory in comparative linguistics at the end of the eighteenth
century identified the etymology of the root of the place-name Styra with the
Phoenician goddess Astarte (Astira) and the establishment in the area of a Phoenician
trading colony. Today, this view has been rejected and today's generally accepted
version is that the name "Styra" comes from the Sanskrit word "Stoura", which
was current around the ninth century B.C., and which means bull or ox.
Styra was conquered by the troops of the Persian general Dates during
the Persian campaign against Greece in 490 B.C. Prior to the battle of Marathon,
the Persians transported the captured Eretrians to the small island of Styra,
the ancient Aigileia. During the second Persian campaign against the Greeks, the
Styraians took an active part in the struggle against Xerxes' troops, with two
triremes and an infantry battalion taking part in the battle of Plataia
in 479 B.C.
From 477 B.C. Styra, along with all the other cities of Evia, participated
in the Athenian League. The Styraians took part in many military campaigns on
the side of the Athenians during the Sicilian expedition of 415 B.C. in the second
phase of the Peloponnesian War. It appears that in the early fourth century B.C.
Styra came under the dominance of Eretria,
since epigraphic evidence of the time refers to it as though it were an Eretrian
territory. During the Lamian War between the Macedonians under Antipater and the
Athenians in 322 B.C., the Styraians supported the former. As a result, the city
was destroyed by the army of the Athenian general Leosthenes.
The Styraians, along with the Eretrians and the Chalkidians were famed
for their prowess at fishing for deep-red shellfish. During the period of Roman
rule, the economy of Styra and Karystia
region was founded on the mining of its famous marble, which in antiquity was
called Karistian stone or Euboeac or, according to Latin writers, cipollino. It
was a green-veined marble from which were made the columns of the Library of Hadrian
in Athens, and which was in great demand in the Roman and Byzantine periods.
During the period of Frankish rule in Evia the settlement of Styra
was located on its present site, in the shadow of the castle of the Armenians
or Lamenians, the ruins of which are preserved at the top of the hill of St. Nicholas
or Diakoftis (450 m.) above Kliosi. The castle was built over the walls of the
ancient Acropolis of Styra. At the beginning of the 1300s the fortress was conquered
by the Catalans, who sold it to the Venetians in 1373. It was still in use after
the occupation of Evia by the Ottomans in 1470.
It was also during the period of Frankish rule that Albanian-speakers
were first settled in Evia, after a decision by the Venetian Senate (20 April
1402), with the purpose of using this population in the defence of the island.
A second wave of Albanian speakers arrived in Evia around 1425. These Albanian-speakers
settled in the region which stretches out to the south of Ochi
as far as Avlonari and Aliveri.
These populations mixed with and were absorbed by the Greek population which was
already there. The memory of these events is today preserved in the form of the
linguistic idiom of the region of Styra, which is based on Arvanitika, medieval
Albanian, and also in local place-names.
The Stouraites took an active part in the struggle for liberation
against the Ottomans. On 12, January 1822 on the hill of Kokkinomylos, northwest
of Styra, one of the most dramatic pages in modern Greek history was written.
Ilias Petrobeis Mavromichalis and a few brave young men entrenched inside a windmill,
the ruins of which still remain today, were besieged by the Ottoman hordes of
Omer Bey of Karystia, and suffered a martyr's death. A monument was erected to
act as a local reminded of the sacrifice of the Maniat war-lord and his fellow
fighters. Mavromichalis' bones were laid to rest inside the monument.
A few months after the battle of Kokkinomylos, in June 1822, Nikolaos
Kriezotis was appointed head of the Greek revolutionary powers in Evia. On 20,
March 1823 Kriezotis fortified the slope of Diakoftis below the castle of the
Armenians, with the purpose of using the area as a base for the military campaign
to besiege Karystia. On 23, March 1823 the Ottoman forces attempted to occupy
the area and destroy the revolutionaries. After a six hour battle Omer Bey's forces
were repelled by the Greek fighters. The Battle of Diakoftis had a great effect
on the course of the revolution in Evia, reinforcing the morale of the revolutionaries,
as it was the first time that the fearful Bey of Karystia had been defeated in
battle by the revolutionary forces.
This text is cited May 2003 from the Municipality
of Styra tourist pamphlet.
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!