Nea Anchialos ( el, Νέα Αγχίαλος) is a town and a former

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

in Magnesia,

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 ...

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 wi ...

. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality

Volos Volos ( el, Βόλος ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the sixth most populous city of Greece, and the capital of the Magnesia regional unit ...

, of which it is a municipal unit. It is situated southwest of

and north of

Almyros Almyros or Halmyros ( el, Αλμυρός, , , ) is a town and a municipality of the regional unit of Magnesia, region of Thessaly, Greece. It lies in the center of prosperous fertile plain known as 'Krokio Pedio', which is crossed by torrents. Alm ...

, on the coast of the

Pagasetic Gulf The Pagasetic Gulf ( el, Παγασητικός κόλπος, Pagasitikós kólpos) is a rounded gulf (max. depth 102 metres) in the Magnesia regional unit (east central Greece) that is formed by the Mount Pelion peninsula. It is connected wit ...

. It is located on the national highway

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

Lamia LaMia Corporation S.R.L., operating as LaMia (short for ''Línea Aérea Mérida Internacional de Aviación''), was a Bolivian charter airline headquartered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as an EcoJet subsidiary. It had its origins from the failed ...

-Volos. The area of the municipal unit is and its population 6,819 people (2011). pagasitiko

History

Antiquity

The modern town is built on the ruins of the ancient city of

Pyrasos Pyrasus or Pyrasos ( grc, Πύρασος or Πύρρασος) was a town and polis (city-state) of Phthiotis in ancient Thessaly, mentioned by Homer along with Phylace and Iton as ruled by Protesilaus, in the Catalogue of Ships in the ''Iliad'', ...

(Πύρασος), and is associated with the nearby city of Thessalian or Phthiotic Thebes, near the modern village of Mikrothivai.

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

mentions Pyrasos in his list of ships (''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Ody ...

'' B.695) together with Phylace and Itona, which belonged to the kingdom of

Protesilaus In Greek mythology, Protesilaus (; Ancient Greek: Πρωτεσίλᾱος ''Prōtesilāos'') was a hero in the '' Iliad'' who was venerated at cult sites in Thessaly and Thrace. Protesilaus was the son of Iphiclus, a "lord of many sheep"; ...

. According to

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called " Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could s ...

(IX.435), who discusses its topography, "well-harboured Pyrasos" (εὑλίμενος Πύρασος) was 20 '' stadia'' from Phthiotic Thebes. Pyrasos is scarcely known from historical sources, except that it was an active harbour and featured a famous temple of

Demeter In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Demeter (; Attic Greek, Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric Greek, Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Twelve Olympians, Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, ...

and Kore, after which the harbour was later known as Demetrion. The only excavation which took place on the hill of Magoula, the old acropolis, southeast of Nea Anchialos, proves that the site was peopled since the earliest

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

period (6th millennium BC) by fishermen and agriculturalists. Archaeologically, the remains of Pyrasos are scant, and the city is barely known in historical times. An arm from an oversized statue, which came into light in 1965, was attributed to Demeter. Possibly the most identical finding is a small fragment of an ancient epigraph, discovered in the debris of the big Basilica D with the name Pyrasos, confirming the location of the city. In the late 4th century BC, Pyrasos was joined (

synoecism Synoecism or synecism ( ; grc, συνοικισμóς, ''sunoikismos'', ), also spelled synoikism ( ), was originally the amalgamation of villages in Ancient Greece into ''poleis'', or city-states. Etymologically the word means "dwelling toge ...

) with the neighbouring cities of Phylake and Phthiotic Thebes. The new conurbation took the name of Phthiotic or Thessalian Thebes. The city remained prosperous under Roman rule, but it was moved from the inland site of the old Phthiotic Thebes back to Pyrasos near the sea. The city's prosperity from the 4th through the 6th centuries is attested by the number of its

Early Christian Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewis ...

monuments, but was brought to an end in a great fire in the late 7th century that destroyed the city. The city was rebuilt and apparently continued to be of some note in the early

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

period—its bishop is last mentioned in the 8th/9th century—but never recovered and was eventually eclipsed by the nearby port city of

Halmyros Almyros or Halmyros ( el, Αλμυρός, , , ) is a town and a municipality of the regional unit of Magnesia, region of Thessaly, Greece. It lies in the center of prosperous fertile plain known as 'Krokio Pedio', which is crossed by torrents. Alm ...

Nea Anchialos

Nea Anchialos was founded in 1906 by Greeks who fled the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

town of Anchialos (modern

Pomorie Pomorie ( bg, Поморие ), historically known as Anchialos (Greek: Αγχίαλος), is a town and seaside resort in southeastern Bulgaria, located on a narrow rocky peninsula in Burgas Bay on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It is ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

) after massive anti-Greek riots, provoked by the Greek-Bulgarian struggle in Macedonia.

Notes

References

Nea Anchialos City guideMunicipality websiteHellenic Ministry Of Culture - Nea Anchialos/Fthiotic ThebesNea Anchialos Online Tourist Guide
{{Authority control Populated places in Magnesia (regional unit)