Neo Gynaikokastro (, old name: ''Avret Hişar'') 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 Pikrolimni, in the Kilkis municipality, within the

region of Central Macedonia.

Geography

The terrain around Neo Gynaikokastro is a bit hilly. The highest point in the vicinity is 188 metres above sea level, 1.6 km north of Neo Gynaikokastro. Around Neo Gynaikokastro it is quite sparsely populated, with 42 inhabitants per square kilometre. The nearest major community is

, 13.3 km northeast of Neo Gynaikokastro. The area around Neo Gynaikokastro consists mostly of agricultural land. The climate in the area is humid and subtropical. The average annual temperature in the neighbourhood is 17 °C. The warmest month is August, when the average temperature is 30 °C, and the coldest is December, with 3 °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.

History

Byzantine Era

The wider area of Gynaikokastro was initially part of ancient

Mygdonia Mygdonia (; el, Μυγδονία / Μygdonia) was an ancient territory, part of Ancient Thrace, later conquered by Macedon, which comprised the plains around Therma (Thessalonica) together with the valleys of Klisali and Besikia, including the ...

and then, during the reign of

Alcetas I of Macedon Alcetas I of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλκέτας; 576–547 BC) was a son of Aeropus I of Macedon and the 8th king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia, counting from Karanus, and the 5th, counting from Perdiccas, reigning, according to Eusebius ...

(658-540) and Amyntas I of Macedon (540-498). In 1334 a castle was built in the area by Andronikos III Palaiologos to protect, mainly from the Serbs, Thessaloniki and to protect the crop of the Macedonian plain.

Ottoman Rule

Around 1383, it was occupied by the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Gazi Evrenos Bey, hence the old name of the village was Avret Hisar or Avret Isar. During the years of Ottoman rule there was the

kaza A kaza (, , , plural: , , ; ota, قضا, script=Arab, (; meaning 'borough') * bg, околия (; meaning 'district'); also Кааза * el, υποδιοίκησις () or (, which means 'borough' or 'municipality'); also () * lad, kaza , ...

of Avret Hişar that belonged to the Salonica Vilayet.

Greek Rule

The village was transferred to Greek sovereignty as a result of 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 ...

. This area of the Macedonian front 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. Its current inhabitants are descended from

Greek refugees Greek refugees is a collective term used to refer to the more than one million Greek Orthodox natives of Asia Minor, Thrace and the Black Sea areas who fled during the Greek genocide (1914-1923) and Greece's later defeat in the Greco-Turkish War ...

who came from the "Tsataltza" province of Istanbul and the "Artohan" region of the Caucasus. In 1926, refugees from Eastern Thrace settled, namely from the villages of Oklali, Lazarkioi, Ambarli and Akala in the area of Metron (Tsataltzas), near Lake Derko and the village was renamed Nea Dimitra. In 1928 the name was corrected to Neo Gynaikokastro. In 1928 the village was entirely populated with resettled refugees, comprising 608 people in total within 178 families. 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 coun ...

, the village, along with Vakoufi, Kokartza and Kato Apostoloi, constitute the local community of Neo Gynaikokastro, which belongs to the municipal unit of Pikrolimni of the municipality of Kilkis and according to the 2011 census as a community has a population of 1,050 inhabitants while as a settlement 578. In 1994, the hill northwest of the village was declared a protected archaeological site.

Notes

References

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