Ellinopyrgos ( el, Ελληνόπυργος), formerly (and occasionally in popular usage) known as Gralista (), is a village in the central part of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

with 280 inhabitants in 2011. It is located in the municipality Mouzaki and the

regional unit The 74 regional units of Greece ( el, περιφερειακές ενότητες, ; sing. , ) are the country's Seventy-four second-level administrative units. They are divisions of the country's 13 regions, and are further divided into municipa ...

Karditsa Karditsa ( el, Καρδίτσα ) is a city in western Thessaly in mainland Greece. The city of Karditsa is the capital of Karditsa regional unit of region of Thessaly. Inhabitation is attested from 9000 BC. Karditsa ls linked with GR-30, the ...

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thes ...

. Ellinópyrgosat

Geonames.org (cc-by) GeoNames (or GeoNames.org) is a user editable geographical database available and accessible through various web services, under a Creative Commons attribution license. The project was founded in late 2005. The GeoNames dataset differs from ...

/ref>

History

The first reference to the settlement is made in a letter of 1328 discovered by the university professor Nikos Veis in a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

Meteora The Meteora (; el, Μετέωρα, ) is a rock formation in central Greece hosting one of the largest and most precipitously built complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries, second in importance only to Mount Athos.Sofianos, D.Z.: "Metéora". ...

and which mentions the settlement with the name Gradistio. In the following years the village meets the name Gralista. Initially the settlement was lower but due to a plague epidemic that broke out in the middle of the 17th century the surviving inhabitants left their original homes and settled in the livestock settlement located in the current location of the village. The village was included in the treaty that granted autonomy to the so-called

Agrafa Agrafa ( el, Άγραφα, ) is a mountainous region in Evrytania and Karditsa regional units in mainland Greece, consisting mainly of small villages. It is the southernmost part of the Pindus range. There is also a municipality with the same n ...

, a mountainous region in Central Greece during Ottoman times. In the following years it experienced growth based mainly on livestock and textile home industry. During the 18th century,

Cosmas of Aetolia Kosmas the Aetolian, sometimes Cosmas the Aetolian or Patrokosmas "Father Kosmas" ( el, Κοσμᾶς ὁ Αἰτωλός, ''Kosmas Etolos''; born between 1700 and 1714 – died 1779), was a monk in the Greek Orthodox Church. He is recognized as ...

visited the area.

Georgios Karaiskakis Georgios Karaiskakis ( el, Γεώργιος Καραϊσκάκης), born Georgios Karaiskos ( el, Γεώργιος Καραΐσκος; 1782 – 1827), was a famous Greek military commander and a leader of the Greek War of Independence. Early ...

, a

klepht Klephts (; Greek κλέφτης, ''kléftis'', pl. κλέφτες, ''kléftes'', which means "thieves" and perhaps originally meant just "brigand": "Other Greeks, taking to the mountains, became unofficial, self-appointed armatoles and were know ...

who became a hero in the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...

, settled near the village at the age of eight, having been orphaned. He lived in a cave of Lolos near the village. Karaiskakis remained in the village until 1800, when he was 18 years old, having formed his own band of klephts. During the Greek War of Independence, Ellinopyrgos suffered significant damage. In 1822 the pasha of Trikala, Selichtar, campaigned against Agrafa and destroyed the village. Ellinopyrgos experienced two more disasters. The first was in 1854 during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

when

revolted. After the failure of the revolution, Turkish troops completely burned the village. The second catastrophe occurred in 1878 during the new revolution of Thessaly. This time, the damage was smaller. Three years later Thessaly was united with the

Kingdom of Greece The Kingdom of Greece ( grc, label=Greek, Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος ) was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, where ...

. In 1928 the settlement was renamed from Gralista to Ellinopyrgos. The name Ellinopyrgos is due to an ancient building that stands at the top of the hill, above the village.

Topography

The Gralisiotis river flew at a 3 km long section through the old village, dividing it into two parts. The wells of the village are the well "Klima" and the well "Mana avrou" while there are many more wells in the location "Athanatos". Kapsouna peak is located at an altitude of 950m, and the peak "Kastri" at an altitude of 907m. In the area "Paxaraki" there is a stream and some small waterfalls.

Churches

The churches of Agios Georgios, Agia Paraskevi and Agios Dimitrios are remarkable architectural monuments of Ellinopyrgos. * Agios Georgios was the catholic of a small monastery built by the

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the penins ...

monk Gerasimos Tzortzopoulos in 1818. * Agia Paraskevi, to honor their patron saint. The church was erected on the site of a previous church that had been burned by the Turks after the revolution of Thessaly in 1854, in which the village also participated. *The church of Agios Dimitrios, the youngest of the three, was built in 1925 and adorns the eastern district of the village.

References

{{Mouzaki div Populated places in Karditsa (regional unit) Mouzaki