Megali Vrysi or Megali Vrisi (, old name: Armutsi / Armoutsi) is a village in the

Kilkis Kilkis ( el, Κιλκίς) is a city in Central Macedonia, Greece. As of 2011 there were 22,914 people living in the city proper, 28,745 people living in the municipal unit, and 51,926 in the municipality of Kilkis. It is also the capital city o ...

region of Greece. It is situated in the municipal unit of Kilkis, in the Kilkis municipality, within the Kilkis region of Central Macedonia.

Geography

Physical Geography

The terrain around Megali Vrysi is mainly flat, but to the northeast it is hilly. The highest point in the vicinity is 335 meters above sea level, 3.2 km east of Megali Vrysi. Around Megali Vrysi it is quite densely populated, with 58 inhabitants per square kilometre. The nearest major community is Kilkis, 6.8 km east of Megali Vrysi. The area around Megali Vrysi consists mostly of agricultural land. The climate in the area is temperate . Average annual temperature in the neighbourhood is 16 °C . The warmest month is July, when the average temperature is 30 °C, and the coldest is December, with 2 °C. Average annual rainfall is 844 millimetres. The wettest month is February, with an average of 116 mm of precipitation, and the driest is August, with 21 mm of precipitation.

Administration

Until 1994, it was the seat of the community of Megali Vrysi, to which the neighbouring settlement of Metalliko also belonged. After the implementation of the Kapodistrias plan, it joined the municipality of Kilkis. According to the

Kallikratis plan The Kallikratis Programme ( el, Πρόγραμμα Καλλικράτης, Prógramma Kallikrátis) is the common name of Greek law 3852/2010 of 2010, a major administrative reform in Greece. It brought about the second major reform of the count ...

, it is the local community of Megali Vrysi that belongs to the municipal unit of Kilkis of the municipality of Kilkis and according to the 2011 census has a population of 492 permanent residents.

History

In the Ottoman Empire

The " Ethnography vilayets of Adrianople, Monastir and Salonika ", published in Constantinople in 1878 and reflects the statistics of the male population by 1873, Armutliya ( Armoutlia ) is listed as a village in Hisar said Aurelia with 40 houses and 105 inhabitants Pomaks. According to Vasil Kanchov (" Macedonia. Ethnography and Statistics "), in 1900 Ali Hadjalar had 350 Bulgarian Christians and 20 Gypsies.

In Greece

After the

Second Balkan War The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 ( O.S.) / 29 (N.S.) June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies r ...

, Armutchi was under Greek sovereignty. This area of the

Macedonian front The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front (after Thessaloniki), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of German ...

was the scene of fighting between the Bulgarians and the Entente forces dominated by the

Armée d'Orient (1915–1919) The Armée d'Orient (AO) was a field army of the French Army during World War I who fought on the Macedonian front. The Armée d'Orient was formed in September 1915 during the Conquest of Serbia by German-Austrian-Bulgarian forces, and shipped to ...

. A number of photos from this time have survived. In 1927 the village was renamed Megali Vrisi. Its inhabitants emigrated and were replaced by Greek refugees. In 1928, Armutchi was presented as a purely refugee village with 121 refugee families and 451 people.

Notes

References

{{Kilkis div Populated places in Kilkis (regional unit)